Welcome to Orion Supports, a 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!

In this post, we’ll share how Orion and Rock Med teamed up once again at BottleRock Napa Valley, a three-day music festival held in the heart of California wine country.

For event organizers, maintaining a safe environment for tens of thousands of concertgoers is always a top priority. To make that happen, medical teams need to work together as efficiently as possible.

Traditionally, dispatchers would stage medics throughout the venue in hopes of having a team close to a person who may need help. While event radios were the primary communication method, Orion served several critical functions.

At the event, Rock Med field teams and transport vehicles were equipped with rugged smartphones running the Orion app. Through the app, not only were medics’ real-time locations available, but they could also use the Orion push-to-talk (PTT) technology, transforming their phones into mobile walkie talkies.

Supervisors at the command post used Orion’s new web-based location mapping service (currently in private beta release) to monitor locations, allowing them to quickly locate and assign the closest teams to medical calls, as well as providing supervisors with a real-time operating picture of the event.

At large events like BottleRock, Orion’s technology has the potential to save lives, by simplifying logistical process without taking attention away from the vital care EMTs provide. In addition to medical communications, Rock Med also used Orion to coordinate non-critical communications, including supply delivery and setup.

With Orion’s powerful platform, versatile features, and ease of use, it proved to be a highly effective tool for the medical staff at this year’s BottleRock festival. 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 Orion site.

Welcome to Orion Supports, a 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!

In this edition of Orion Supports, we’ll share how Rock Med used Orion at this year’s San Francisco Pride weekend, an annual celebration described as “the largest gathering of LGBT people and allies in the nation.”

Rock Med relied on Orion at two large-scale events during the weekend: the SF Trans March on Friday and the larger SF Pride Parade on Sunday, both of which Orion has been supporting since its founding in 2013.

Sunday’s parade covers a large portion of downtown San Francisco. This year, Rock Med was advised to expect record numbers of participants and spectators — so they prepared to support up to 1.5 million people.

Initially, Orion was set up at this year’s event to assist Rock Med supervisors to locate medics to match them with patients in need, via GPS tracking. Its secondary purpose was for administrative and logistics communication, through Orion’s push-to-talk technology.

However, due to capacity and coverage issues with the primary radio system, Orion played a much more significant role at SF Pride than initially anticipated.

After several unsuccessful attempts to increase coverage with traditional radios, Rock Med quickly trained teams over-the-air on Orion use. Rock Med teams passed the training down the parade route, from team to team, to ensure those who were out of contact could re- establish communications, this time using Orion.

Without Orion, critical communication between medical dispatch and field teams would have been seriously compromised, taking the focus away from essential medical care and putting lives at risk.

At large events like these, Orion’s technology can help save lives, by simplifying logistical processes without taking attention away from the vital care EMTs provide.

Orion’s powerful platform, versatile features, and ease of use proved it to be a highly useful tool for Rock Med staff at this year’s Pride celebration. It’s a tool that can be quickly and easily integrated across industries and verticals to boost productivity and streamline communication.

“Orion has been an important tool for the Rock Med team over the past ve years, helping us save time and focus on the critical patient care we provide,” said Gordon Oldham, Executive Director at Rock Med.

To read or share the full story, check out the official case study. To learn more about Orion and try a risk-free trial, visit the main site.

Header photo by Charlie Nguyen.

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.

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.

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.