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| By using TargetSolutions to track ISO training hours, Palm Coast was able to ace the training portion of its recent ISO review. The end result was a jump in overall rating from 4 to 2. |
The City of Palm Coast Fire Department was in the same position as most agencies: Looking for a simple, efficient way to streamline EMS recertification when it turned to TargetSolutions in the fall of 2010.
What it received was something unexpected: A comprehensive tool for managing ISO training hours.
After a poor review in 2010, which saw the department register a 3.96 in the training category of its ISO review, the department was thrilled to learn TargetSolutions, brought in to assist with EMS continuing education, was actually going to be able to solve Palm Coast’s ISO challenges.
“Being able to document everything we do now is huge,” Training Officer Gary Potter said. “The documentation had always been the hardest part. We would have bits of information here, here, and here – but being able to put it all together and get everything on the same page with TargetSolutions was nice.”
PALM COAST FIRE & RESCUE
Location: Palm Coast, Fla. | Population Served: 75K over 106-square miles
Operational Tempo: 8,700 calls each year | Employees: 90 personnel
The platform’s online firefighter training system, featuring a unique, one-of-a-kind tracking application for documenting ISO fire department training, helped Palm Coast overcome an issue many departments face: Accurate reporting of training hours. When ISO’s audit came in early 2015, the department’s first since 2010, the result was a perfect 100 percent performance for training credit and a jump in overall rating from 4 to 2.
“TargetSolutions has helped us log the information and put it in the format that is required by ISO,” said the department’s platform manager Leo Chumaceiro. “We were able to portray the training in a nice, neat format in a spreadsheet in the way they wanted to see it.”
After recognizing the platform’s full capabilities, the department took advantage of TargetSolutions’ outstanding customer service by working closely with the company’s support staff to fine-tune Palm Coast’s ISO Training Tracker.
“TargetSolutions really helped us customize this application for our needs,” Chumaceiro said. “There was a roadmap of how we need to present the information and we customized it for what we were doing. We tailored as much as we could and were able to meet ISO’s training requirements.”
Chumaceiro admits the Palm Coast was initially somewhat surprised by the multitude of possibilities available with TargetSolutions for streamlining fire department training and compliance. The department uses the system to deliver, track and report everything from online and offline training, including in-person group events, to compliance of SOGs, SOPs, licenses, EMS certifications, and much more, he said.
In fact, the fire department had such great success with TargetSolutions the City of Palm Coast has incorporated the tool for its city employees. The city is now using TargetSolutions to distribute online safety training, driver training, compliance tasks, and much more.
“The city’s needs were different than ours, but we recommended it to show how we are tracking training,” Chumaceiro said. “They have been using it for a year now for delivering training.
“TargetSolutions has really become a cornerstone of our department. We use TargetSolutions as a delivery tool to send out all types of things and it’s been very successful. We have spoken with other departments about how we are using it. We’re happy to share our success.”
Leo Chumaceiro, Platform Manager for Palm Coast Fire & Rescue (Fla.)
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About TargetSolutions
TargetSolutions delivers cutting-edge software applications, engaging online training courses, and world-class customer service. The company was founded in 1999 and today thousands of organizations across the country use TargetSolutions’ innovative technology to solve their training challenges. For more information, please call 1 (800) 840-8048.
