When every second counts

7,000 patients in 16 days – the medical service at Munich's Oktoberfest is the largest of its kind in the world. In order to organise the deployment of the numerous helpers, Aicher Ambulanz Union relies on the communications solution XPhone Connect.

On and beneath the Oktoberfest site, the Theresienwiese, an independent telephone network ensures uninterrupted emergency communications. The medical service has a dedicated line connecting it to the large marquees and rides. If an emergency call comes in from there, thanks to caller ID the operations management team knows immediately from where it has been placed and can alarm the nearest unit in parallel. This can save a few, sometimes even crucial seconds.

All important information to hand

As a rule, the paramedics encounter minor injuries, circulatory problems or excessive beer consumption – the majority of the patients can be taken care of and treated directly at the Oktoberfest. With almost 400,000 visitors a day, however, life-threatening situations do occur. In order to be able to quickly request outside help in these cases, Aicher has stored all important telephone numbers in the XPhone Dashboard.  So with just a click, operations management can call an ambulance or coordinate with other medical service providers and nearby hospitals.

The operations teams also have to be coordinated. "Personnel management around the Oktoberfest is extremely intensive," says Martin Stumpferl, Head of Emergency Services at Aicher. To ensure all qualifications and competencies are always represented in every unit – and also that they function as a team – the operations management must constantly adjust the duty rosters and consult with the employees concerned. "We pass on the changes to the affected colleagues by phone," says Stumpferl.

The necessary information for this is also provided by XPhone Connect: with it the operations management on site can directly access the various databases at Aicher's headquarters. Thanks to free text search, the contact details of the individual employees are available in seconds – whether from Excel, the roster scheduling program or Outlook. According to Stumpferl, this is valuable not only at Oktoberfest: "XPhone brings all of our data sources together in an intuitive control element and thus ensures all employees from all departments can access the same data pool at all times."

Communication regardless of location

Thorough preparation is necessary to ensure the medical service runs smoothly during Oktoberfest. Martin Stumpferl is therefore already at the Theresienwiese a week in advance. Using the Mobile App he communicates there exactly as he does in the office: "I can divert calls anywhere. At any time and from anywhere in the world." Thanks to the One Number concept, however, he can always be reached via the office extension number. All of Aicher's contacts are also available to him in the app – as is his entire communication history in the Unified Journal.

The Mobile App is particularly useful for administrative staff. For example, shift changes in standby duty have become more convenient: whereas previously call forwarding had to be adjusted manually, now the respective employees can control it from their smartphones – without being on location. "With the Mobile App, XPhone has met all of our requirements and wishes for flexible, location-independent communication," summarises Martin Stumpferl.