Rock Medicine Helps 100,000+ Bay to Breakers Runners Stay Safe and Have Fun – #OrionSupports

Welcome to Orion Supports, a new series focusing on how Orion’s technology is being implemented across different industries to improve productivity, strengthen communities, and even save lives.

One of those industries is healthcare, where Orion has valued a 5-year partnership with Rock Medicine (also known as Rock Med), an organization that has been providing free, non-judgmental health care at events throughout the West Coast for more than 40 years!

Leading the partnership is Orion Co-Founder and CTO Greg Albrecht, who has been working with Rock Med for nearly a decade as an EMT, Dispatcher, and EMS Field Supervisor.

The ties between Orion and Rock Med go deep; in fact, Greg says his experience working with Rock Med has been highly influential as he’s led the development of Orion’s push-to-talk and connected voice platform since the company began in 2013.

One of the largest events of the year for Rock Med is Bay to Breakers, an annual foot race and street party, which draws more than 100,000 runners and costumed party goers to San Francisco each year.

Bay to Breakers staff sync up to coordinate race day activities

With a course that stretches across the entire city of San Francisco, it’s challenging to coordinate emergency medical staff and provide them with the right tools to make their jobs easier.

As is typical with similar events, the Rock Med staff at Bay to Breakers rely on traditional radio technology for dispatch and medical calls, which have limited capacity and range. This year, the team also incorporated Orion technology to supplement their radios — and saw impressive results.

At such a large-scale event, one of biggest logistical problems is matching field teams with patients who need help. Traditionally, medical staff would try to stage teams throughout a venue, in hopes of having a team close to where people might call for help. With Orion, however, they’re able to track locations directly through the app, saving critical time and allowing EMTs to better focus on patients.

In one case, supervisors needed to locate a nurse to staff one of the critical care tents at the race. With Orion, they were able to pinpoint the nurse’s location quickly and easily communicate where to go.

Rock Med workers relied heavily on Orion through their rugged phones, like the Sonim handset pictured

While location tracking was the main intention of using Orion at Bay to Breakers, it also served as an important secondary channel for non-critical communications, such as coordinating the delivery of medical supplies across the city.

As another bonus, the Rock Med staff were able to use Orion on ruggedized smartphones from Kyocera & Sonim (which look similar to radios they’re accustomed to using), which made it incredibly intuitive to learn.

With Orion’s powerful platform, versatile features, and ease of use, it proved to be a highly effective tool for the medical staff at Bay to Breakers. It’s a tool that can be quickly and easily integrated across industries and verticals to boost productivity and streamline communication.

To learn more about Orion and try a risk-free trial, visit the main website.