EmergyCare, one of the largest nonprofit EMS providers in Northwestern Pennsylvania, provides emergency medical technician (EMT) and paramedic training courses. Because state regulations mandate that students taking these courses must attend live training, students in areas far away from the headquarters training location typically needed to travel several hours to train. EmergyCare's two satellite locations in Warren and Meadville, PA were very interested in putting together a distance learning platform.
Business Environment Challenges
EmergyCare, one of the largest nonprofit EMS providers in Northwestern Pennsylvania, provides emergency medical technician (EMT) and paramedic training courses throughout the Northwestern Region of Pennsylvania. Their headquarters is located in Erie, PA and their service area spans over 7 counties and 2,100 square miles with approximately 300 providers.
Because state regulations mandate that students taking these courses must attend live training, students in areas far away from the headquarters training location typically needed to travel several hours to get to a location for the training course. EmergyCare has two satellite locations in Warren and Meadville, PA and they were very interested in putting together a distance learning platform.
Technology Solutions
After looking at a few different options, EmergyCare found that the Windows collaboration display (WCD) from Sharp best fit its needs. The WCD is a 70” Class (69.5” diagonal) 4K Ultra-HD display, which includes a built-in microphone, 4K camera and IoT sensor hub that works seamlessly with Microsoft 365 collaboration tools. It’s all backed by the cloud to deliver outstanding ease of use and enable the continual analysis of meeting room conditions and usage.
The fact that the device is user-friendly out of the box, was a key component in the final choice for EmergyCare. They also liked that it is optimized with Windows 10 and it integrates with all of their systems. Although the facility is not a smart facility, they like that the attached sensors on the WCD track activity in the meeting space such as ambient light, temperature, humidity and motion, and hope to be able to use those features in the future.
EmergyCare had been utilizing outdated technology without the ability to collaborate, which would not work for their distance learning. Jim Kifer, Education and Training Manager says, “I absolutely love the touchscreen aspect of the device. Going from a dry erase board in a classroom and a desktop computer connected to a projector, with no interoperability or interactivity to a Windows collaboration display where everything will get done in one shot is incredible for us. And it’s all linked, everyone can see everything all at the same time. We are very excited about this ability.”
With the WCDs located in three locations across Pennsylvania, EmergyCare will be able to teach many students simultaneously, giving all participants the ability to interact with each other, even from a distance of hundreds of miles. They plan to have their lead instructors teaching from their headquarters location while there will be lab instructors at the other two locations to engage students with hands-on instruction.
Aside from teaching their EMT, AEMT and eventually, paramedic courses, EmergyCare will also be using the WCD to train their 300 employees throughout the year during in-service sessions, saving the time it used to take from either employees travelling to the headquarters location or the instructors having to travel to the employees’ location. They now will have the ability to train all their employees simultaneously, limiting the training time from 8-10 four-hour sessions to only 2-3 four-hour sessions.
EmergyCare is thrilled with the purchase of their three Windows collaboration displays and are excited to start implementing training sessions.
“I absolutely love the touchscreen aspect of the device. Going from a dry erase board in a classroom and a desktop computer connected to a projector, with no interoperability or interactivity to a Windows collaboration display where everything will get done in one shot is incredible for us."