The Spokane Water Department is adding security measures to its fire hydrants to ensure the protection of the city’s water supply. The Water Department will begin installing locks in the West Plains area during June, east of the Spokane International Airport and south of Sunset Boulevard. The city is working with the Spokane Fire Department, surrounding fire districts, Spokane International Airport, and public works users to ensure the hydrants are readily available for emergencies.
- PUB DATE: 6/15/2022 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KXLY-TV ABC 4 Spokane

A new tool now displays wildfire risk information for homes and communities in the Tri-Cities area. The data shows the majority of houses in Benton County at major risk of being impacted by wildfires over the next several decades. "Here in Washington, our grass per acre, the height and density of it is much higher than what we normally see," Pasco Fire Chief Bob Gear said.
- PUB DATE: 6/15/2022 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KIMA-TV CBS News Yakima

The city of Kennewick hosted a ground breaking ceremony on Monday for a new fire station. Construction will take place on the corner of S. Dayton St. and W. 8th Ave. in the next few weeks. The station will be two-stories high and will cost around $10 million to build. Chief Chad Michael says it was time to get a new building and is very appreciative of all the support he's received from elected officials and the community to make this project happen.
- PUB DATE: 6/15/2022 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KNDO-TV NBC 23 Yakima

Aircraft will be outfitted with Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) configuration kit

Fort Worth, TX (15 June 2022) – Bell Textron Inc., a Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) company, announced today that CareFlite has signed an agreement to purchase a Bell 407GXi aircraft outfitted with an IFR configuration kit.

“With CareFlite’s new Bell 407GXi and the two IFR certified Bell 429s currently in its fleet, Careflite will continue to facilitate around-the-clock critical care to patients across North and Central Texas,” said Lane Evans, managing director, North America. “Bell is proud to continue to support and provide the CareFlite team with ready and reliable aircraft.”

In addition to the two Bell 429 helicopters in its Helicopter Air Ambulance (HAA) fleet, CareFlite also operates five Bell 407 helicopters that provide critical care transportation to those in need. CareFlite’s aircraft fleet is used for emergency transports in Texas and Oklahoma and long-haul patient transfers throughout the region.

“Bell has been a part of CareFlite’s mission of ‘Making Precious Minutes Count’ since 1979,” said Kevin Reynolds, Interim CEO and COO, CareFlite. “For more than 40 years, CareFlite has utilized Bell aircraft to complete life-saving operations to patients in North and Central Texas, and we are proud to expand our current fleet capabilities with the new Bell 407GXi.”

With this purchase, CareFlite will be the first HAA operator using Bell’s 407GXi IFR kit in North and Central Texas.

Established in 1979 with one helicopter shared between two hospitals, CareFlite now operates seven helicopter bases at Texas Health Fort Worth Hospital, Methodist Dallas Medical Center, North Texas Medical Center Gainesville, McKinney National Airport, Whitney, Granbury Municipal Airport, and Burnet Municipal Airport. Over one million patients have been safely transported by air and ground, since its inception. CareFlite also offers hospital team specialty flights including balloon pump, ECMO, Impella, HROB (High Risk OB) and neonatal transports.

The Bell 407GXi’s new IFR capability will allow all-weather operations while continuing to provide multi-mission capability safely, reliably, and effectively. Bell proves its mature production and sustainment support capability with more than 1,600 Bell 407s globally, and actively performing flight training as well as military and para-public missions. The 407GXi’s Garmin G1000H™ NXi Flight Deck enhances situational awareness and reduces pilot workload by delivering easy-to-read information at a glance.

Pulsara, the leading mobile telehealth and communication platform that connects healthcare teams across organizations, announced today that Pulsara MED OPS™ has been named the “Best Healthcare Technology Solution” winner of 2022 as part of the annual SIIA CODiE Awards. The CODiE Awards recognize the companies producing the most innovative business technology products across the country, and around the world.

Acknowledged as the premier awards program for the software and information industries for over 35 years, the SIIA CODiE Awards are produced by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the principal trade association for the software, education, media, and digital content industries. SIIA announced the full slate of CODiE winners during an online winner announcement on June 8. Pulsara MED OPS™ was honored as one of 46 winners across the 45 business technology categories, including seven leadership categories recognizing outstanding companies, individuals, and teams.

“Even during these tumultuous times, business application, software, service and product providers continued the industry’s long tradition of developing and marketing innovative solutions to meet business needs,” said SIIA President Jeff Joseph. “We are proud to recognize this year’s class of CODiE Award winners. They truly represent the best of the best in a highly-competitive and ever-evolving market.”

Pulsara is a HIPAA-compliant, secure, easy-to-use communication and logistics platform that unites healthcare teams and technologies across departments and organizations for any patient event. Replacing archaic technologies with live video, audio, instant messaging, image sharing, and more, Pulsara unites the entire care team on one patient channel. With Pulsara, care providers see reduced treatment times and reduced costs of care, improving the lives of both patients and caregivers.

When the pandemic began, Pulsara moved quickly to aid the many health systems overwhelmed by surges of COVID-19 patients needing emergent care. The Pulsara MED OPS™ package provides emergency managers with one unifying tool to connect team members during any incident or event—from the Multiple Patient Incident (MPI/MCI), to the full-fledged disaster, to the worldwide pandemic. By enabling systems of care that scale, the Pulsara MED OPS™ package provides emergency responders with a secure and HIPAA-compliant communication solution that can overlay existing workflows or establish new ones depending on the event.

Using Pulsara MED OPS™, everyone—from EMS to Public Health—has full transparency from the beginning of the stress event through patient follow-up and reporting. Built to eliminate fragmentation of communication and coordinate mutual aid, Pulsara effortlessly scales as the situation unfolds, translating to more efficient emergency management and patient care.

During the COVID pandemic, the scalability of Pulsara MED OPS™ gave the Texas Emergency Medical Task Force the flexibility to build Regional Medical Operation Coordinating Centers (RMOCCs). Utilizing Pulsara’s platform, these coordination centers were able to assess regional and statewide needs and compile resources (i.e., bed availability lists from hospitals) into one place.

It took just 48 hours—during a COVID surge—to get the RMOCCs onboarded. The time savings and reduction in miscommunications were tangible. The RMOCCs streamlined the patient transfer process, reducing the number of phone calls to transfer a single patient by 75%.

From rural areas to entire cities, regions, and states, healthcare providers can communicate with every member of the care team in real-time—without the worry of information being lost due to limited connectivity. Pulsara’s public API is built on a secure, cloud-based platform, allowing for seamless connections that enable key information to be delivered during high-stress events when othe