Chilean scale-up Viper has used its mass notification program to cut dispatch times for ambulances and fire engines, saving the lives of hundreds and hundreds of people.
After a car accident, a fire, a fall from height or any other life-threatening emergency, someone will most likely call the fire department at 132 or an ambulance at 131. From their call centers, these institutions dispatch the unit that will go to the rescue of those affected. As soon as the call comes in, time becomes critical, because the speed of the response can make the difference between life and death.
That reality was well understood by the creators of Viper, a computer-aided dispatch system (CAD) for incident management that is fully customizable and adaptable to any kind of organization, and that delivers mass and emergency notifications (EMNS: Emergency Mass Notification System), making it possible to handle very different situations quickly and effectively.
Scenarios as different as a fire, a natural disaster or an accident can be handled effectively with this innovative platform. With a simple interface, similar to a digital button panel, an immediate response to any emergency is triggered with just a few clicks.
“Everything used to run on paper and printouts. The emergency details had to be entered into a computer and then printed out to dispatch a unit. With Viper it is done directly when the call is received, so the unit is dispatched instantly,” says Sebastián Martínez, dispatch nurse at the ambulance center of the Municipality of Pudahuel.
He also highlights that, thanks to this tool, they can obtain reliable statistics, and says that the primary and secondary transport unit handles close to a thousand calls a year. Information they never had at hand before, much less online, and that today is just a matter of applying a few filters.
The beginnings with firefighters
Founded 8 years ago by Camilo Salazar and Exequiel Gallardo, Viper started out as a tool for fire companies, with the goal of helping them respond to the different emergencies they face every day in a faster and more orderly way.
It is an app that turns a mobile phone into a beeper (the old pagers) that sends mass notifications with a specialized design and a distinctive tone. It is currently used by firefighters in the country’s main regional capitals, including Antofagasta and Concepción, as well as a large part of the Santiago Metropolitan Region.
“Every time an alarm is handled, each firefighter receives a notification on their phone with the location and description of the emergency. If it is a fire, it shows the hydrants closest to the scene, which has made the job easier,”, explains Alfonso Olivera, Third Commander of the Antofagasta Fire Department, which a year ago decided to replace the system it had used for more than a decade with this technology. “We have modernized our work. We can’t stay stuck with the bell or the siren that sounded years ago,” he adds.
He also points out that the main change was the accuracy of the dispatches. “The previous system was quite erratic at giving the location. For us, this means saving time, because it lets us dispatch the units that are actually closest and not lose valuable minutes getting to the emergency.”
The Concepción Fire Department, which adopted Viper in early 2022, has had a similar experience. Its Commander, Cristián Cárdenas, is emphatic that the platform has allowed them to save at least two minutes in response times.
“In the past, dispatch had to wait for the assigned company to confirm whether it had enough personnel to cover the emergency. If it didn’t, another dispatch had to be created and we had to wait for the answer again. Today that information is online: the dispatch center knows exactly how many firefighters each company has, and if a company has no one available it isn’t dispatched, even if it is the closest to the emergency,”, explains Cárdenas.
This technology has also allowed them to keep real-time fleet control, “which was a great advantage during the summer wildfires, when the Concepción Fire Department was the only one that knew exactly where its engines were working, thanks to VIPER GO GPS tracking. That information is essential when working in open areas and when the radio signal is unstable because of the terrain,” says the commander.
Another important benefit of the tool, highlighted by both Cárdenas and Martínez, is online access to information, figures and statistics they used to have to look up in books or binders. This has allowed them to manage their resources better, with a positive impact on the operation of both the Fire Department and the ambulance center.
Over the years, Viper’s founders have won phases 1 and 2 of CORFO’s SSAF program. They have also developed new tools such as VIPER CREW, VIPER ONE, VIPER GO and VIPER MASS, solutions that are now used by different organizations across the country.
“The great advantage is how we can adapt the software to the specific needs of each institution, whether in healthcare, public agencies, schools, shopping malls or others. Our goal is for everyone to manage emergencies with clear protocols through a mass notification system that helps optimize resources and ensure operational continuity,” concludes Camilo Salazar, COO & Co-Founder of Viper.
| You can read the original article (in Spanish) HERE |