Lexington County EMS Investment Returns Big for Small County
Lexington County EMS is a government agency with a growing demand for services that would typically require $16M investment over a four year period to keep pace. Instead a $400K technology investment lead to a 3900% ROI over that same period.
Online, June 8, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Lexington County is one of the fastest growing counties in South Carolina situated just outside of the state's capital, but one of the unfortunate results of that population growth is a 7.5% annual increase in their call volume for emergency services currently running about 30,000 calls per year. To keep pace with this growth in demand would normally mean adding one new vehicle per year, a cost exceeding $3M for an ambulance, crew, station, equipment, etc., just in order to keep pace with past performance. Instead, Brian Hood, EMS Coordinator for the County, invested only around $400K during 2006 in new technology to improve service efficiency which has resulted in improved response times even without any additional staff or vehicles over the past four years literally saving the county millions of dollars while even providing better service. With the compounding effect of recurring costs for adding staff, the savings is now estimated at nearly $16M on that initial investment, an ROI of 3900%.
Working with Jack Maguire, Lexington County Planning/GIS Manager, the county EMS was able to leverage and improve existing Geographic Information System (GIS) street data for locating addresses and improving vehicle routes. Analytical software called the Mobile Area Vehicle Location Information System (MARVLIS) is provided by Bradshaw Consulting Services of Aiken, SC who leverages ArcGIS® technology in their solution as an Esri® Gold Partner to predict and plan response to future demand. "This is exactly what technology should do - provide better service at a reduced cost," said Brian Hood "and further leveraging existing county investments is a bonus. But the key is in developing appropriate partnerships."
About BCS: Founded in 1998, Bradshaw Consulting Services ("BCS") provides unique software solutions based on the Esri® ArcGIS® platform to help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of local public safety agencies across North America through Geographic Information Systems ("GIS"). The company offers a range of High Performance GIS solutions and services to provide advanced pre-hospital care with high economic efficiency, crime analysis, and fire response analysis.
About Esri: Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in geographic information system (GIS) technology, Esri software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. Esri is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at esri.com/news.
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MARVLIS, BCS are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Bradshaw Consulting Services, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Esri, the Esri globe logo, GIS by Esri, ArcLogistics, esri.com, and @esri.com are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of Esri in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Other companies and products mentioned herein may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective trademark owners.
For more information, press only:
Elizabeth Bradshaw, 803-641-0960, etb@bcs-gis.com
For more information on MARVLIS:
http://www.bcs-gis.com/PageHolders/subpage.aspx?page=marvlis
For more information on Lexington County High Performance EMS story:
http://hpems.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/the-cost-of-saving-money/