5 March 2009
To Whom it May Concern:
My name is Josef Penner and I am the Executive Director for the Mecklenburg EMS Agency. We serve Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, which includes the City of Charlotte. The Agency responded to 93,320 requests for service last year and transported just over 73,000 patients. Medusa provided electronic medical record (EMR) service for every call and patient – not a single paper chart.
Medusa’s team has supported our development and EMR journey as they were the successful vendor in a competitive process in 2004. We selected them at the time for their superior approach and the applications fit with field use. The system design and the fact that we transmit via a wireless on-board router to the main server 24-7 has kept data very secure. While it took us time to evaluate the vendors and capabilities, we are more than satisfied with the selection and their collaborative spirit in developing enhancements to the product.
Once exported, you can use different software to ‘view’ data. We export so as to utilize software familiar to our people. Medusa has helped us extract and manage data via these familiar tools while we learn appropriate ways to utilize COGNOS (the powerful reporting package included in our purchase). Beyond the initial and ongoing support, Medusa has developed a composite performance dashboard in COGNOS to apply to our data. They’re further along than we are at this point, but again, the relationship has been solid and their willingness to work with us has been tremendous.
I’d be remiss to paint too rosy a picture; the early days were quite challenging. We are extremely grateful for the team at Medusa today, and importantly, the long term perspective they have on the business relationship. Through any challenge that we may have had, they have assisted us whether the issue ultimately lie with us or Medusa.
Finally, while I’ve been here throughout the relationship, there are others at Medic involved in the procurement and operating the system. You are welcome to visit or talk through any aspect with them when convenient.
Sincerely,
Josef H. Penner
Executive Director Mecklenburg EMS Agency