McKee hospital in Loveland (Northern CO)

[BinaryMode]

Hello all. Long time scanner user, long time RR lurker. Just wanted to pass on some info. I gathered from my radio on June 1st or the 2nd that apparently McKee hospital is no longer using two-way radios. Instead it's all phone. Anyone know the reasoning behind this decision? Kinda silly to do that if you ask me when radio is the best form of communications hands down. If cell service goes down then what? I wonder if the choppers get reliable cell up there moving at that speed?

Anyway, I have several talk groups I have found that I need to submit that as far as I know are not in the database. One is a Loveland PD training talk group and a Fort Collins PD training talk group. I also found what I think are a few DEA talk groups.

 

[ScannerSK]

I believe I heard a McKee med report maybe a few weeks ago; I don't monitor them regularly. Is this a fairly recent change?

Those are good points about cell service and choppers. With regard to cell towers, even during emergency rolling blackouts, cell tower batteries cannot fully recharge which causes the cell systems to go down as occurred a few years back in Texas. Reliance on cell towers is just begging for trouble during an outage for any reason. Possibly, they will keep the radio channels as a redundant backup system?

This brings up another question slightly off topic. I wonder how many DTRS/FRCC towers are IP/internet based? I imagine if there was a sustained widespread power outage or cyber attack the entire DTRS/FRCC systems could fail especially simulcast sites.

 

[Spirit]

Probably about 2 to 3 months ago that went back to DTRS talking on patient reports.

 

[BinaryMode]

Is this a fairly recent change?

Yes. I monitor traffic from several talk groups 24/7 and keep an audio archive. When I noticed that I wasn't seeing anything from Mckee anymore I went back into my audio archives to see what was up. It was then on June 1st or the 2nd I heard traffic from Mckee say that the ambulance is now supposed to call in patient reports. So now the Mckee talk group is virtually dead silent. I only see MCR traffic now-a-days.

For me personally I never much listened to hospital Coms unless something big went down and I wanted to find out what was going on. Other than that I just never listened at all. Since PD is encrypted it's a good idea to keep area hospitals programed so that when something big does go down, and by listening to hospital Coms you can help better understand what happened.

 

[Spirit]

Probably about 2 to 3 months ago that went back to DTRS talking on patient reports.

BinaryMode & ScannerSK, I still hit McKee and MCR. You have the right TG's? I will listen more but I just got MCR the other day.​

 

[BinaryMode]

Yes, just went back a week in my audio archives and I do hear Mckee but only for MedEvac. Occasionally I do hear an ambulance but no response from Mckee because I bet the ambulance was supposed to call in rather than use the radio for the patient care report. Other than that Mckee is pretty quite. All I see in the audio archives I have is mostly MCR audio recordings everyday, no Mckee. So it seems like from what I'm hearing, Medvac can use the radio but not the ambulance.

I'd really like to know who thought this up and why? Maybe I should send an e-mail and see if I get a response?

 

[Spirit]

Yes, I'm not sure what is going on with McKee or MCR I will keep a close ear and see if I hit anything. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[dougw65]

If it’s true about McKee,it’s probably due to concerns about HIPPA- patient privacy act. I’ve always wondered when I’ve heard these reports how they can be transmitted in the clear given the existence of HIPAA.🤷‍♂️ Sad because HIPAA or no HIPPA,they we interesting to monitor.

 

[Spitfire8520]

If it’s true about McKee,it’s probably due to concerns about HIPPA- patient privacy act. I’ve always wondered when I’ve heard these reports how they can be transmitted in the clear given the existence of HIPAA.🤷‍♂️ Sad because HIPAA or no HIPPA,they we interesting to monitor.

HIPAA has an exception that allows for unencrypted radio communications.

Speaking of exceptions, patient reports by radio is an exception for many hospitals in Colorado and phones have been the norm for decades. The hospital talkgroups still exists in the system and hospitals should still monitor their talkgroup as a backup in theory, but many providers forget that they exist and the hospital radio is often not monitored.

 

[BinaryMode]

Yeah, HIPPA is a zero issue here. I mean, I doubt that's it. Reason being is that you don't hear the paramedic give the patient's name and other private information over the radio. And I'm sure paramedics are well trained on that...

 

[BinaryMode]

Well, some more Info. to add. After all this time I now realize this is most likely a TVEMS decision as I can't hear them talk to MCR nor McKee since June 1st of 23.

I'm only now noticing this after checking my archives since I don't listen to hospital Comms unless something big happened. But it was just today I was wondering why I wasn't seeing as much MCR traffic that I normally do and began to investigate three years worth of archives. LOL!

So yeah, TVEMS now sends patient care reports to the hospital via cell phone. And they've been doing this since June 1st, 2023. Though, for some reason some TVEMS ambulances never got the memo after June 1st. and the hospital told them to call the phone number.

 

[IrvingtonVFD43]

I remember the good ole days of the UHF Med channels. None of this cellphone, Big "E" nonsense.

You were able to monitor Ambulance to Hospital patient reports. Med 9 was used as a "Dispatch" channel. Ambulances would contact the dispatcher on Med 9 to get Med channel assignments, for instance, Platte Valley Medical Center in Brighton was pretty much on Med 4 all the time, North Suburban was usually on Med 8, St Anthony's North ( I think the name has changed) Med 7. Most all the Denver area hospitals were on these Med channels and in the clear. The comms were simplex, so depending on where you were located is what you hear.

Not to mention Dispatch on Med 9 also toned out Platte Valley Ambulance and Mountain View Search and Rescue with test tones dropped at 1900? nightly.

 

[BinaryMode]

I have the itinerant MED channels programed and for some reason they still light up. You would think with the DTRS you wouldn't need it, but I guess it's all about business and politics and whatnot that I don't care about... LOL