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Heartland was one of the first EMS pro-
viders to go all-in on GPS systems for its
vehicle fleet, which enabled it to boost effi-
ciency with an increased ability to reallocate
personnel resources on the fly. All vehicles
are also equipped with WiFi hotspots and
the company as a whole is moving toward
entirely paperless recordkeeping with the ad-
vent of tablet computers and smartphones.
“One of the things we are faced with is a
geographical challenge because of our foot-
print,” Cheek says. “We needed the technol-
ogy to be able to track our squads and rede-
ploy them, so now when we get a call we can
tell where the nearest one is and how soon it
can get where it’s needed. There were signifi-
cant investments and there’s been a learning
process, but it was a necessity.”
Meanwhile, going forward, the learning
curve will stay just as steep.
Cheek describes the industry as one “in a
little bit of turmoil” thanks to changes man-
dated by the Affordable Care Act, which,
among other things, will require that com-