Driving Results Through Responsiveness and Flexibility
Area Ambulance Service (AAS) is the main provider of 9-1-1 Emergency Medical Services for the Cedar Rapids, Iowa region and surrounding area covering 250 miles. They are a community-based, non-profit organization governed by a Board of Directors comprised of medical and local government representatives. Starting in 1971, Area Ambulance Service has been serving and providing medical services to the Cedar Rapids area for 50 years.
We recently spoke with the CEO, Keith Rippy, the Vice President, Jennifer Peden and the IT and Support Services Manager, Joel Polhamus to learn more about their ongoing IT managed services experience with our Technology and Innovation team and the unique strategy and business needs required to technologically support a business with such an imperative mission.
We discussed the importance of responsiveness and how it may differ from other organizations due to the significance of the services that AAS provides. For most companies, when they experience system downtimes or IT issues, it may result in inconveniences but for a company such as AAS, not having proper IT capabilities is much more high stakes as it could potentially mean life or death. To meet this incredible need, our team members must act quickly and be responsive when issues arise, and this was an important factor when the AAS team was vetting solution providers.
“I know when I call BerganKDV with a critical issue, AAS has their full focus. The responsiveness is huge, even when the technician I am working with doesn’t have a direct answer, they are upfront and loop in a manager immediately to address the concern which I greatly appreciate,” said Polhamus.
We also discussed the requirement of implementing and maintaining tight security protocols due to the confidentiality of the records and information that the AAS team handles on a daily basis. Medical documents contain data that must be protected to uphold the law and patient privacy.
“Security to our organization is everything,” said Peden. “We need to know that if one of our team members clicks on a bad link, that we’re not going to have patient files compromised. BerganKDV takes care of that need for us so that we can focus on our jobs and not be concerned about potential breaches.”
To wrap up the conversation, we talked about what tactics our Technology and Innovation team has done that have made a difference and driven results for AAS in addition to our alert response times and managing security procedures.
“What struck me about BerganKDV was their flexibility and being able to adapt to and understand our needs. Our engagement with BerganKDV includes a vCIO, Justin Smock, who has a background in EMS and understands what we do, the importance of combatting IT issues and the urgency required to resolve issues,” said Polhamus.
“Our IT team has a single point of contact in Justin where we can work with him to look further down the road on items such as upcoming budget cycles, short-term and long-term project planning, and ensuring our technology is where it needs to be,” said Rippy. “It’s more than just what needs to be done for tomorrow, the future planning is very helpful and he’s a great resource for that.”
Let us write your next success story. If you have questions about BerganKDV’s Managed Services and how we can partner with you, contact our Technology and Innovation team.
