New Modems on Heart Monitors Will Help Save Lives

Goshen Township's Fire & EMS Department is now using two new modems hooked to their mobile heart EKG monitors thanks to a donation from Tri-Health. The modems hook into the monitors, and are able to transmit medical data to the hospital while the patient is en route.

Traditionally when a heart patient arrives at the hospital the emergency room staff has to re-administer heart tests that were already completed in the field by local EMS staff. After the tests are run at the hospital, doctors then decide if the patient needs to be moved to the catheter lab and make the call to the surgeon.  By transmitting the results of the field tests through the modems, the emergency room doctors can have a surgeon and space in the catheter lab ready and available by the time the patient arrives at the hospital.

"It's like call ahead seating," said Goshen Township firefighter Darrell Roberts, "It can cut up to ten or fifteen minutes off of care time."

Roberts said that having the modems will not change the way patients are cared for in the field.

The modems were donated to the department from Tri-Health. Tri-Health purchased the modems with grant money awarded to them to help local communities. Roughly 30 other surrounding departments also received the modem attachments. The units cost approximately $800 each.