Support Corner

ORTIVUS USERS GROUPS VS ORTIVUS WEBINARS:
It is an either-or choice? Trying to decide which?
by Cheri Lane, Communication Manager

Ortivus provides many different forms of education and information to meet the needs of EMS and Public Safety professionals. One of our latest initiatives has been a new webinar series with Page, Wolfberg and Wirth to help spread the valuable industry information that they have packaged together in their past ABC3 seminars. The topics for the 2007 Ortivus-PWW Webinar series include: Claim Clinic, Compliance Clinic, Call Intake and More Than Medicare. These 90-minute, online webinars (or web seminars) provide a simple way to gain valuable information from the convenience of an office or home computer and a phone line. During a typical webinar, an audio presentation will be accompanied by a PowerPoint visual presentation to emphasize key points as well as a possible demonstration of a software application, polling periods to gain audience feedback, an instant messaging/chat question and answer component and other possible educational/information features, such as sharing out websites, videos, etc. The webinar experience is a wonderful opportunity to gain relatively small amounts of information in a remote fashion.

Ortivus also recognizes the need for more comprehensive and focused hands-on training, which is the objective of our Ortivus Users Groups. The Users Group training focuses on more detailed and personalized training specific to the Ortivus applications. Whereas in a webinar environment, there is only so much interaction and customization that can take place in a fairly short period of the “online attention span,” a three-day Users Group has the time and one-on-one advantage of drilling down to a more detailed level and the ability to offer advice and direction on specific issues that individual services may encounter. The Users Group environment also offers fewer distractions than the typical workplace and the ability to focus on learning complex or large amounts of information that would be difficult to process during a 90-minute online presentation (where attention may be diverted by workplace issues, incoming email or other distractions during the event). Another big benefit of the Users Group environment is the opportunity to develop networking relationships with other professionals in the same field for future reference and resource.

Webinar events are wonderful ways of staying abreast of current issues, software update changes, module education, or more specific software skills or topics (vs. broad ranging skills and topics), whereas Users Groups are designed for advancing the general skills with the Ortivus programs that will result in increased efficiency and effectiveness with the application. Ortivus strives to provide multiple types of educational venues to fit the many different learning styles.

If you’d like additional recommendations about which type of training, or combination of training, is right for you and your service, please call us for a personalized recommendation at 800-537-3927, ext. #278 or email us info@ortivusna.com.

SWEET-CAD Q&A

Q: What do I do if reservations are not creating the scheduled incidents, or the incident is created multiple times?
Sharon Frauenkron, Support Technician

A: Try these steps

1. Make sure that everyone is out of Sweet-CAD.
2. On the Sweet-CAD Server, stop Appwatcher if it is running. (This looks like a set of green eyes; it would be running in the lower right hand corner of your server in the system tray.) Right click on it and choose exit.
3. Stop Sweet-CAD Server. It will be minimized on the task bar as traffic monitor.
4. Stop RadioGATEe (if it is running on your task bar, not every service uses this).
5. Stop the Ortivus Server Service. ( This is found in Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services.)
6. Wait a minute and then start the Ortivus Server service.
7. Then start Sweet-CAD Server, RadioGATE and Appwatcher (if you use Appwatcher).
8. The dispatchers can now get back into the Sweet-CAD program. Enter a test reservation to make sure that it is working properly.

Re-save any reservations that didn’t create an incident.

If the problem persists, call Support at 563-387-9338.
 

Q: Are you prepared with a contingency plan in your dispatch center?
Terri Jirak, Director of Support Services

A: Should your system be down due to power outage, system maintenance or natural disasters, it is important to have a plan in place and tested so that your dispatchers can easily move from their normal routine to plan B (commonly known as going back to paper). Remember that more than just your computer system can go down so this plan needs to include alternative communication devices as well.

Many of our Sweet-CAD customers are taking the opportunity to test this plan when Ortivus technical support is updating their software. Very soon Sweet-CAD 5.3 will be released, so have your plan in place and let us help you test your plan.

NEMSIS
Ann Bodensteiner, Product Lead - Support Services

Q: Do I need to send my data to my state in the new NEMSIS format?

A: That depends on your individual state requirements. Only a few states have begun requiring runsheet submission to be in the NEMSIS format. Sweet-Billing version 5.3 and Sweet-FieldData have gone through numerous changes to accommodate the new data elements required by NEMSIS. When you update to version 5.3, you will not see the majority of these new fields. In addition, you will not need to turn on these new fields or fill them out unless your state requires this data.

HOT TOPICS FOR PUBLIC SAFETY
Kelly Rothlisberger, Support Services

Recommendations, Considering the Factors

Recommendations are a suggestion by the program for the most appropriate vehicle given a specific set of criteria previously setup by the system administrator in the AdminTool.

The criteria used by the system to make the recommendation are:

1. The Vehicle Type
2. Capabilities
3. Response Plans
4. Dispatch Codes

These four criteria work together to help the dispatcher choose the most correct vehicle for that incident. It’s important for customers to take into consideration these four areas of the administration tool when adding new vehicles to ensure that the recommendations are accurate for the Dispatch Codes on an incident. If you notice that a recommendation is not working the best for a specific dispatch code, start to trace these four criteria back in the Administration Tool to find the area that needs some work.

Tracking vs. Tracing and a Trace Demo
 

• Tracing - a device that allows the user to follow the path a vehicle is taking. Used in AVeL_BASE
• Tracking - keeps landmarks, incidents or vehicles on the map at all times and adjusts the map scale when required. Used in AVeL-BASE

The above screen shot is of a trace preformed during a Playback of MV33 and shows the exact path that the vehicle took during the time period entered. To perform trace on a playback, first go to File and select New Playback. Select the time period you would like to look at and then choose Collection and Vehicles Displayed, select the vehicle you want to trace. Then go to Collection and select Vehicles Traced and select the same vehicle. Push the play arrow. The path the vehicle took will display the marks on the map (given that the vehicle is AVL equipped).