Sumner County EMS is the 9-1-1 service for all of Sumner County, one of the largest counties in Tennessee, serving more than 150,000 residents. With 13 ALS ambulances and six BLS units in service, Sumner County EMS employs 125 people and maintains an "A" rated service mark, the highest rating Tennessee awards for public services.

With a rapidly growing service area, Sumner County's technology team began moving the organization from paper to electronic forms in order to improve process efficiencies and productivity. In an effort to replace its initial solution--a non-PC software application built specifically for small handheld devices--Sumner County turned to an integrated software solution for both EMS and public safety. With offerings for both in-house billing management and mobile field service, Sumner County's technology team needed a new hardware solution that would enable them to fully leverage all of the benefits of the selected software.

A Complete Mobile Solution

Michael Cook, Sumner County's IT manager, was in charge of selecting the device that would provide full support for its software, survive the daily stresses of the EMS environment and meet all necessary national compliances. With experience as both an EMS technician and a technology manager, Cook knew he needed a robust computing device with a rugged and portable design that could withstand the rigors of harsh environments.

Cook had tried several other solutions but none seemed to fit the bill until he looked into the rugged Motion F5 Tablet PC. The solid design tailored to highly mobile users that often compute in harsh environments impressed him from the very beginning.

"We looked at a lot of different rugged computing devices that just didn't meet our needs. Either they had too many moving parts, which are guaranteed to break in this environment, or they were too small to enable full utilization of the new software solution. When I saw the fully sealed design of the F5 with the virtual keyboard and integrated handle I knew this was the right device for our environment," says Cook.

Cook was also intrigued by the integrated features of the F5. After doing his research, he realized that for the same price as the other rugged PCs, he could get a fully rugged device with useful integrated features such as a Barcode scanner, RFID reader, fingerprint scanner and digital camera.