Ambulance District to Start Frequent Flyer Rewards Program

Earlier this week, Springwood County Ambulance District of Springwood, Ohio announced plans to start a frequent flyer rewards program for patients who often place calls in for emergency and transport to nearby treatment facilities. This program would not only maintain past pertinent medical history of the patients, but would also contain documentation of their previous
interactions with the district up to five years relevance, the number of transports under their name, insurance and emergency contact information.

All of this would be kept both in a program built in the ambulance computer system and a scannable card the patients keep on their persons. In a three tier system being designed by a private medical software company, WebMed Incorporated, the ambulance district hopes to not only reward these good citizens of the community for their consistency and reliability in the district, but also feel the program would build a more open and fluid means of communications between patients and their medics.

Captain Matthias Krueger, who’s been with the company for twelve years, of Base Number 5 explained the three tier system in an interview with our reporter, “The idea is that it would have three main components…. The first addresses emergency transports and what types of emergency is being called in, the worse the emergency, the more points they get. Say someone has a broken femur, this would probably get them about five points… But, if they had an AMI in their sleep, they would get ten or maybe even fifteen.”

Captain Krueger, who took time out of his fully paid vacation to meet with us continued, “Tier two would be for transport. If a patient needed a ride from their apartment to the emergency room because of a severely infected cut, they could call us, and once we scanned their card they would receive three points. The third tier addresses the frequency of their calls, how many times a month or year, between both components and includes any points earned from what may fall into the ‘other’ category…”

The cards, which includes a patient picture, first name, and date of birth, are also being designed by WebMed Incorporated, will be scannable with a handheld laser device all the ambulances are being equipped with over the next year. Once scanned, the computer would provide paramedics with basic information on the patient, previous responses under the patient’s name, their insurance and family information, how many points the patient has earned, and offers a place for the medic to put in more. “It’s great, and if the patient needs, we will have little keychain cards for them to attach to their car keys,” Captain Krueger explains, “But if nothing else we can always just type in their phone number and the PIN number they’ll receive and pull it up manually.”

The rewards of the program vary based on the number of points the patient has and include prizes ranging from an ambulance district t-shirt to a custom coffee mug, or the higher rolling patients could receive a customized fleece blanket waiting on their choice ambulance, free rides to their destination of choice and a tour of base facilities. “We just want to let them know that we appreciate what they contribute to our paychecks and really look forward to working with them in the future,” Captain Krueger explained.

Springwood County Association will be meeting next month to further discuss funding and provisions for prizes.