There’s a 12-mile stretch of highway outside the town of La Veta, below the shadows of the Spanish Peaks in southern Colorado, where Fire Chief Ron Jameson knows a cellphone call from his crews rarely goes through.
For paramedics racing patients across six counties to San Luis Valley Health’s hospitals, large pockets without cell service or internet access leaves them isolated and unable to update doctors on the condition of their patients, EMS manager Adam Daniels said. In some spots, even their radios go quiet.
Longtime paramedic Ryan Daugherty knows many of the gaps by heart: He can get 5G service near the highway just west of Crestone and atop 14,000-foot peaks, but in the middle, “there’s nothing.”
“There are some places where cellphones work,” Daugherty said, only half joking, “but it’s only if you’re standing on one leg facing east and then if you hop onto your right leg, your cellphone signal will drop.”
For emergencies that unfold in these digital dead zones, delays in care are often unavoidable.
But new technology is starting to close those gaps. Across rural communities in the San Luis Valley, first responders can now tap into Wi-Fi transmitted by a local internet provider, allowing crews to relay patient information and receive real-time medical guidance and help shave critical minutes off response times and improve care.
The program, called SmartTown for First Responders, allows police, EMTs, nurses and firefighters to tap into about 9,000 hot spots across the valley. When emergency personnel pull up to a home in a dead zone, their equipment automatically connects to the network.
“It’s secure and it allows for fast transmission of data from that first responder’s device to a hospital or to a team back at the medical center,” said Jordan Wehe, co-CEO of Jade Communications.
First responders can access SmartTown anywhere within Jade’s service area. The Alamosa-based internet provider has been investing in the San Luis Valley for more than a decade and was awarded federal dollars last year through the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program, known as BEAD, to help continue the state’s efforts to get reliable internet access to underserved households.
Patient information is protected
The technology has cybersecurity defense, so no viruses or malware can access medical data or a patient’s personal information, Wehe said.
It’s also pretty easy to use, he said, explaining that first responders don’t have to ask for a Wi-Fi password, but instead are automatically connected to the network.
“There’s none of this fumbling around, especially when a life is on the line,” he said.
All paramedics through San Luis Valley Health were given access to SmartTown last fall, along with La Veta Fire Protection District, a volunteer-run agency providing both fire and ambulance services.
Wehe’s team is now working to expand access to police, fire and other emergency personnel responding to calls in the valley.
The service, Wehe said, is also intended to connect Jade’s customers while they are hiking in remote areas where there is limited or no cell service.
Before the availability of SmartTown, paramedics often had to wait until they reached a signal to contact the hospital, Daniels of SLV Health said.
“In emergency medicine, that delay means the hospital is reacting to the patient upon arrival rather than preparing for them in advance, or in some cases, care is being delayed because medical control must be contacted before proceeding,” Daniels said in an email.
Medical teams, which use tablets to collect patient information and vitals, can now send data to hospitals from the scene.
“Having high-speed Wi-Fi available in residential and community areas gives us a critical ‘Plan B’ when radios or cell signals fail,” Daniels said. “We can now transmit EKG data and patient updates from scenes that used to be total communication blackouts.”
Daugherty, a flight paramedic who transports patients from the San Luis Valley to larger hospitals along the Front Range, said the service has allowed him to access real-time medical support midair.
During one recent flight, he was traveling over a remote area outside of Fort Garland, flying about 150 mph at 1,000 feet, and still connected to SmartTown networks below.
“It’s a very new kind of technology,” said Daugherty, who has used SmartTown for about a year. “But it lit up the San Luis Valley like a Christmas tree with Wi-Fi connectivity.”
On another flight, he briefly connected to a SmartTown hotspot while passing overhead and was able to quickly look up the exact dosage for a medication mid-transport.
“It was loading, loading, loading, and then all of a sudden I hit a SmartTown hotspot and it loaded,” he said. “I got the answers I needed and did what I needed to do. It was a one-minute deal. … But that made the difference in me waiting or guessing or being absolutely sure of what I needed to do.”
Daugherty, who has also worked as a ground paramedic, on search and rescue teams and as a firefighter, for 18 years, said the connectivity will also help agencies set up command posts for large search efforts and wildfires.
“Before, you were kind of trying to run it off your cellphone hotspot or something like that, which is slow and inconsistent,” he said.
The new technology could be valuable for small, rural departments, often staffed entirely by volunteers with limited resources before state or federal help arrives, he added.
Jameson, the La Veta fire chief who oversees about 20 volunteers covering 220 square miles, said the technology hasn’t changed how they respond, just how well equipped they are.
“We still do our jobs the same way,” he said. “It’s just more tools in our toolbox.”