Case Study: Houston Fire Department improves 911 responses and cuts nonemergency care costs with Microsoft Power BI

City of Houston Fire Department improves 911 responses and saves nonemergency patients about 90% in costs with Microsoft Teams and Power BI

The Houston Fire Department needed a safer, more efficient way to handle thousands of low-acuity 911 medical calls that were sending patients to overcrowded emergency departments unnecessarily. To address this challenge, Houston Fire Department worked with Microsoft Power BI and Microsoft Teams to support a new emergency telehealth program called ETHAN.

Using Microsoft Teams for secure, HIPAA-compliant video triage and Microsoft Power BI for near real-time operational analysis, Houston Fire Department enabled emergency physicians to assess patients remotely and direct many of them to nonemergency care instead of ambulance transport. The results included about 90% of patients being routed to other transportation options, reduced emergency room congestion, faster reporting, and major time savings for staff who previously spent weeks or months on manual analysis, all while lowering costs for patients and the healthcare system.

Houston Fire Department

Guy Gleisberg

Senior Staff Analyst