“An operator can receive and distribute any information with just a few mouse clicks and within seconds now.” Dr. Nenad Aracki, Chief of the Institute for Emergency Medical Service Novi Sad Before the introduction of a new information system, the Institute for Emergency Medical Service in Novi Sad, which covers the area with around 400.000 inhabitants with its eight mobile EMS teams, has used the system based on paper-based documentation. In addition to slowing down the processes, in which every second can mean a difference between life and death, it hindered any kind of business analytics. By introducing a new system in the Dispatching Center based on Lync 2010, which is one of the first implementation of this solution in Emergency Medical Services globally, the response time of Call Center operators was reduced, who can now easily determine initial diagnostic and forward it to a dispatcher, who afterwards sends mobile teams to the location. In addition, the management is given a detailed overview of all important parameters of the Institute, which enables them to plan better the growth and development of this important institution. Business Challenge At the Dispatching Center of the Institute for Emergency Medical Service Novi Sad, the most important parts of the business processes were carried out by using paper- based documentation, more exactly by manual data input into appropriate books and forms. “This way of working limited browsing of manually recorded data and it was time-consuming; analysis and statistic were unavailable in real time and precise recording of all times in the process of providing emergency medical care lead to various errors. Because of all of this, the work at the Dispatching Center was very demanding and presented a psycho- physical burden to the employees”, explains Dr. Nenad Aracki, Chief of the Institute for Emergency Medical Service in Novi Sad. In order to get various reports, the employees had to rewrite data from paper forms and insert them manually into computers that are used in administration. Since there was no server in the system, all data were saved onto individual computers and saving, controlling and reporting with data entered in this way was unsafe and lead to potential errors. The strategic objectives of the implementation of a modern system for communication and organization were improving the work of the Institute and its modernization according to the European and world standards. “Perhaps the most important thing in these objectives was finding the way to improve the patients’ satisfaction and raise the motivation level of our employees for working on this system. We were thinking how to implement these strategic objectives and came to the only possible solution - shortening certain time parameters, since we know that in our practice time means life”, underlines Dr. Aracki. Solution Based on project requirements received from the Institute for Emergency Medical Customer: Institute for Emergency Medical Service Novi Sad Partner: CPU, www.cpu.rs Customer Profile The Institute for Emergency Medical Service Novi Sad performs all the activities related to taking care of emergency and befallen medical situations in the city of Novi Sad and its surroundings, covering an area of 60 sq. km with around 400.000 inhabitants, including interventions on about 60 km of Corridor X. Eight EMS teams – four in the city and one in each of the remote locations – perform 24-hour filed intervention. The team is extended with two ambulance vehicles for so-called “cold transport“, transporting patients by instructions of a chosen doctor. During the day, 11 vehicles are used for the emergency transportation of patients, and two vehicles are used for hemodialysis patients, while nine vehicles are left in reserve, and if needed they can be activated and made available in the short term. At the Dispatching Center there are four operators who receive calls and, if needed, forward them to the Chief of the Dispatching Service who is in charge of coordination with the teams on the field. Product and Technologies − Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 − Windows Server 2008 R2 − Microsoft Lync Server 2010 − Hyper-V Microsoft Lync Applied Solution Case Study The communication system based on Lync improved the work of the Emergency Medical Service