By Emily Behlmann
Wichita Business Journal – August 23, 2013
I got an unexpected guest at the Wichita Business Journal office today — a firefighter, in full gear, inviting me to an app launch party.
The patent-pending app is Page-Out, and it’s designed to solve a common challenge for fire departments and emergency medical services, from tiny volunteer departments to those serving major cities.
I expect to learn more at the Sept. 2 launch party, but the basic premise is this: Fire and EMS departments often need to call in volunteers or extra staff who aren’t at the station. When a chief or shift leader needs the resources, there’s little time to waste. With the app, the chief has a real-time list of all firefighters or EMS workers who are available at a given time.
The system works by equipping the individual firefighters or EMS workers’ phones with the app. With the tap of a button, they can mark themselves available or unavailable.
As a video promoting Page-Out states, volunteers are often “on call” 24 hours a day, but sometimes they’re not actually available. If they have to leave town or attend an event, or perhaps if they’ve been drinking, they can “check out” and indicate when they’ll be available again.
Firefighters have other ways of communicating their availability to the chief, but the promotional video suggests this system is simpler because all a supervisor has to do is check the app to know who’s available at all times.
Page-Out promotional materials state that the app was created by Kansas firefighters.
I’ll let you know when I learn more.
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