STARS Air Ambulance

Improving data quality and management for STARS Air Ambulance

Custom Software • Fractional C-Suite • Non-profit • UI/UX • Web Applications • Website Maintenance

Overview

Industry

Emergency Medical Care

Location

Alberta

Technology

.C#
.Net Core
.Net Identity Framework
.Net Web Api Framework
Azure
NextJS
React
SQL Server
Typescript

Project

STARS Air Ambulance (STARS) provides rapid and specialized emergency care and transportation for critically ill or injured patients. It’s a well known and loved non-profit that helps to save lives across Western Canada.

STARS Vigilant is the social enterprise division of STARS, offering emergency response services to help fund STARS mission to provide critical care, anywhere. Through the STARS Vigilant Site Registration program, subscribers are provided access to a dynamic emergency response and physician led- medical consultation at remote worksites when acute medical incidents occur.

The previous system for collecting worksite data was nearing end-of-life, and STARS turned to Vertical Motion to build a new web-based, cloud hosted system to help streamline the collection of data deemed essential for emergency response and accurate billing of the service. The original on-prem solution had become difficult to maintain, leading to data management issues. Vertical Motion worked from the ground up delivering a new application with a streamlined user interface (UI) resulting in consistent data collection and efficient, accurate data management.

This project held significant importance within the STARS organization, marking our first collaboration with an external vendor and playing a key role in supporting revenue generation for our not-for-profit. Vertical Motion proved to be a true thought partner throughout the project, consistently delivering innovative solutions to meet our complex and evolving requirements. Their collaborative and strategic approach was instrumental in the successful development of a product that will support the long-term sustainability of our Site Registration product. I greatly valued their professionalism and ability to navigate the intricacies of such a multifaceted initiative.

Nicole Segstro

Director, Business Development and Sales
STARS Air Ambulance

Solution

A necessary element of the solution was to replace the previous on-prem software, downloaded to local devices as executables. Though the solution was required to integrate with existing legacy software at several points, the central software was to be replaced with a cloud-based web portal.

Vertical Motion investigated and began this full rebuild and re-architecture to a more stable and flexible technology. During the initial audit of the existing system, it was determined that throughout the applications lifecycle, several workarounds had emerged to manage the dynamic nature of the data being collected. Short term fixes included reappropriating fields and time-consuming data audits to avoid inconsistencies in billing data. This also led to several variances in standard data collection procedures resulting in cumbersome and divergent training materials for new hires.

The Vertical Motion discovery helped identify these inaccuracies and account for the UI workarounds, improving and streamlining business processes and improving the quality of the data collected. To manage the dynamic nature of both collection and storage of site data, Vertical Motion created a comprehensive strategy for data migration from the old to new system, ensuring critical information was retained during the transition. The user interface needs were also unique – STARS communication specialists work on atypically large monitors with multiple data tables, well above typical web design resolutions, and Vertical Motion developed a solution with user-defined layouts of multiple data tables. As a result of Vertical Motion’s collaborative approach to this unique project, STARS is reporting improved efficiencies across the organization, resulting in sustainable product delivery and revenue collection.

Non-profit software solutions have long lives, but they're not immortal! After fifteen years and the accumulation of a lot of tech debt, it was time to revisit the old on-premises software and fully overhaul it to a web and cloud-based solution that is much easier to update and manage. Vertical Motion worked with STARS from idea to execution and beyond.