Juvare’s EMTrack Helps Improve Public Safety at Large Events in Southwestern Illinois

The challenge facing Illinois Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Region IV is one familiar to any jurisdiction that holds large events such as car races, marathons, and air shows: keeping track of patients as they are seen by paramedics in the field or at aid stations and as they are transported to hospitals. By implementing Juvare’s EMTrack solution, Illinois EMS Region IV made those problems a thing of the past.

Paramedic Michael Gilbert has seen it all. As the System Manager for the Southwestern Illinois EMS System, part of Illinois EMS Region IV, he assists the EMS Medical Director in providing medical oversight for nine ambulance services and 54 fire departments. He helped supervise the EMS response after a tornado carved through an Amazon warehouse in December 2021. He also worked at the New Orleans airport in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, loading hundreds of patients per hour onto aircraft for medical transport to other parts of the country.

Gilbert’s seven-county EMS region regularly hosts large events such as NASCAR races, air shows, marathons, and beer festivals. Such events pose obvious challenges in terms of treating the large number of people who might need medical care. They present another challenge that is less obvious but well-known to EMS professionals: keeping track of patients.