A regional emergency medical centre in the U.S. has revealed the benefits of its recent decision to install a major internet protocol (IP) telephony facility.
Shippensburg Area Emergency Medical Services (SAEMS) says that although outlay on its state of the art combined IT, IP telephony and business VoIP (voice over internet protocol) installation – which it shares along with the Vigilant Hose Company – cost in the region of $7m, it now enjoys lower monthly phone costs as a result.
The other main benefits of the new combined IT and IP telephony system, SAEMS reveals, include an increase in the efficiency of mobile paramedic staff working both on and off the site, a more rigorous approach to compliance in the workplace through increased monitoring of staff presence and operational activity, and an increase in overall safety and security via such measures as closed circuit television monitoring and entrance and exit access control.
Commenting on the effectiveness already seen in the early days of the new facility, Shippensburg borough’s deputy emergency management coordinator, David Lindenmuth, said:
“We are already experiencing significant efficiencies, cost savings, and improved staff productivity.”
While the level of sophistication and the number of features inherent in the SAEMS IP telephony system are perhaps both more ambitious and expensive than those pertaining to the growing number of IP telephony deployments enjoyed by many smaller private companies, SAEMS is understood to have included a business VoIP element, the scale of which is on a par with IP telephony business phone systems currently in operation among many small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs).
On the other hand, increasingly sophisticated offerings in the IP telephony and business VoIP spheres are now also becoming more accessible to many smaller firms via the cost-efficient and flexible hosted services of selected business VoIP provider or VoIP reseller companies.
