Butler Medical Transport
Serving patients and saving lives are at the heart of the Butler mission. Instant Connect is helping to make it happen.
MEDICAL, MOBILITY, AND SPECIALTY TRANSPORTATION
Superior medical transport from the Mid-Atlantic to New England
When Butler Medical Transport – Maryland’s largest provider of private emergency and non-emergency transportation services – sought to expand its world-class operation into New Hampshire and Vermont, the medical transport company faced a unique challenge.
How could Butler keep its disparate teams seamlessly connected across a geographical territory stretching from corporate headquarters in the Mid-Atlantic to service delivery teams in New England?
Conventional radio systems with their limited RF footprints would never reach that far, leaving Butler with the prospect of having to manage multiple disconnected radio systems, a less-than-ideal operational model.
The answer was Instant Connect, the IP-based software platform that can link radios, mobile devices, virtually any IP-connected system within a single integrated push-to-talk environment – everything becomes a push-to-talk (PTT) device running over the IP network.
“Instant Connect’s interoperable push-to-talk software has been instrumental in helping us optimize customer service and efficiency while expanding our medical transport services into New England. This is a game-changer that’s elevating the speed and responsiveness of the services delivered to our customers.”
Will Rosenberg, CEO, Butler Medical Transport
Extending and enhancing the value of radio
Butler dispatchers in New Hampshire and Vermont are leveraging Instant Connect to dispatch local transportation teams while also staying seamlessly connected to corporate headquarters back in Maryland. All push-to-talk (PTT) communications across Butler’s multi-state ecosystem are managed within Instant Connect’s convenient desktop user interface.
“Collaboration between our Maryland, New Hampshire, and Vermont users drives high levels of efficiency and situational awareness,” says Butler CEO Will Rosenberg. “Corporate in Maryland can monitor what’s going on with our dispatchers and service teams 500 miles north in New England. This collaborative environment lets us respond to shifting events as needed – especially important when it comes to medical transport, where patients’ lives can be at stake.”
Says Matthew Garrett, Butler’s Director of Customer Solutions: “Many of the drivers in New England who became Butler employees didn’t know anything about Instant Connect, nor did they need to. All they knew was that their day-to-day experience in the field was better with Butler. Same radios but better dispatching and better customer service.”
Butler is seeing a number of important benefits from their push-to-talk voice deployment:
- Operational continuity. When Butler expanded into Vermont and New Hampshire, the company was able to leverage the existing radio networks in both states without disruption. Instant Connect simply integrated the networks into its IP-based environment and connected them back to corporate headquarters in Maryland.
- Dispatching flexibility. Dispatchers in Vermont and New Hampshire can fluidly share workloads as needed to maintain the fastest response times. If one team is short-staffed or facing a flood of incoming requests, they can instantly pass calls over to the other team. The backup is transparent to the outside world. And Instant Connect is easy to use for new staffers. “New dispatchers can get up and running fast,” notes Mr. Garrett.
- Radio, desktop, and mobile interoperability. Some Butler executives, including Mr. Rosenberg, have the Instant Connect mobile app on their smartphones so they can monitor and participate in workflows as needed. No need to carry extra radios to stay connected.
- Reliability. “The platform operates as expected, this is a mission-critical tool at the center of our field operations,” says Mr. Garrett.
“Instant Connect uses the IP network to create a single push-to-talk environment connecting our Maryland headquarters with our frontline teams in Vermont and New Hampshire. Butler dispatchers, drivers, support personnel, and management have the opportunity to share voice communications across radios, desktop systems, and mobile phones.
No more worrying about how far an RF footprint can reach, or geo-gaps between different radio networks. With Instant Connect, all push-to-talk users can be connected as one.”
Will Rosenberg, CEO, Butler Medical Transport
Dedicated voice comms with major DC hospital
In addition to connecting Butler users across the U.S. eastern seaboard, the company is using Instant Connect to strengthen its strategic relationship with one of its most important clients – a major Washington DC medical center.
Butler and the hospital are closely collaborating to ensure the highest levels of performance in medical transport. And Instant Connect is key to the process. Three rotating dispatchers within the hospital use Instant Connect to manage medical transport across an area from Maryland to Northern Virginia, dispatching Butler vehicles as needed. A secure dedicated enterprise-to-enterprise voice channel connects the hospital directly with Butler’s Maryland headquarters – an example of how push-to-talk can drive unique levels of collaboration.
Typical use cases include emergency medical transport, inter-facility (moving patients between hospitals), incident response, and regional coordination of large inter-agency events that may impact the Mid-Atlantic region.
Looking ahead...
Butler appreciates the inherent efficiency and scalability of the Instant Connect platform, especially as it relates to potential future growth plans.
“The ability to scale Instant Connect to add more users, connect more devices, and extend the value of existing radio networks – this is a valuable asset as Butler looks to the future,” says Mr. Rosenberg. “With IP-based push-to-talk, our decision-making and strategic planning get a little easier.”
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