How Orion Powered Heads-Up Communication for the Eastern Pennsylvania Tactical EMS Team

Providing emergency medical care in tactical situations

Time is always of the essence for the Eastern Pennsylvania Tactical EMS Team. They’re an organization of SWAT paramedics and physicians who respond to emergencies across eastern Pennsylvania.

As a tactical paramedic service, they need to stay in sync with dispatch to get details on their daily objectives.

A wide-ranging operational area makes calling useless

In the past, they communicated using text messages and phone calls. Unfortunately, this required them to pull over while driving in order to send or receive messages. In emergency situations, these wasted moments could mean the difference between life or death.

It quickly became clear that their patchwork method of texts and calls wouldn’t work when the team was conducting a 48-day search for a violent suspect in rural Pennsylvania. They found they couldn’t reach other team members who were just a mile away, due to poor call quality.

To make matters worse, their full operational territory stretches across 46,000 square miles of urban and rural terrain. The Eastern PA Tactical EMS Team knew they needed a more reliable solution, and they set out to find one.

Solving the challenge with Orion

Their search led them to Orion, whose Onyx push-to-talk wearable device allows the team to communicate with one another in seconds. Onyx is easy to use even while driving and lets them remain heads up and focused.

For the Eastern PA Tactical EMS Team, ensuring the wellbeing of their staff is the top priority. With Orion, their paramedics can get to their destination safely without wasting time grappling with mobile phones.

“Communication is our biggest challenge in these life-or-death situations, and we’ve solved that problem with Orion,” said Stephen Bobella, Executive Director of Northern Berks EMS, a sponsoring agency of the Eastern PA Tactical EMS Team.

Read the whole case study

To learn more about how the Eastern PA Tactical EMS Team uses Orion to communicate in real time while responding to emergency situations, read the complete case study.