How the Texas Panhandle RAC Keeps Emergency Response Connected with Plum Cases

Overview

The Texas Panhandle Regional Advisory Council (RAC) keeps communication and internet running across a large mix of urban and rural territory, including places where regular service is unreliable or simply isn’t there. Plum Cases give the council dependable connectivity wherever its teams deploy, strengthening both emergency response and day-to-day operations.

About

The Texas Panhandle RAC is the operational arm of the Emergency Medical Task Force (EMTF) in Texas. It responds to natural disasters, power outages, infectious disease events, and other emergencies across a network of hospitals, EMS stations, and mobile medical units. Because those locations are diverse and often remote, reliable communication and internet access are central to how the council manages emergencies and delivers care.

Challenge

Need for Reliable Connectivity in a Variety of Remote Locations

The RAC covers a wide service area where internet access can be slow, unreliable, or unavailable, often in the exact conditions where connectivity matters most. Its mobile hospital had relied on VSAT for internet, which proved too outdated and slow for live emergency operations. The council needed connectivity it could count on the moment it arrived on scene, whether at a damaged hospital or an open field.

Solution

Versatile Deployment of Plum Cases for Connectivity Needs

Self-contained mobile hospital. The RAC runs a highly versatile mobile medical hospital the team describes as a “MASH unit on steroids.” It includes air conditioning, heating, and inflatable tents, and can provide up to 32 hospital beds in the Panhandle region, expanding to as many as 190 beds when combined with other regions. The unit is fully self-contained, with its own generators, water systems, showers, and bathrooms, so it can stand up a full operation even when a traditional hospital is out of service. Plum Cases supply high-speed internet, keeping communication running over AT&T’s FirstNet and Verizon networks and replacing the older, slower VSAT setup with reliable 5G access.

Versatile deployment. Beyond the mobile hospital, the RAC puts Plum Cases to work across a range of situations:

• Natural disasters and power outages: connectivity for hospitals and EMS units when local networks go down, keeping teams coordinated on medical needs.
• Public events: internet for medical teams at marathons, bicycle races, and air shows for communication and documentation.
• Wildland fire support: connectivity for wildland paramedic units to send EKGs and other critical medical data straight to cardiologists from the field.
• Remote consultation: for high-consequence infectious disease cases, connectivity that lets doctors consult from outside the contamination room without exposure risk.

Support for other communication tools. Plum Cases also keep the RAC’s other systems online, including its Motorola Wave push-to-talk communication when traditional systems fail, and the WebEOC emergency management software, usable on the move or set up at hospitals and EMS stations for real-time coordination.

Outcome

Critical Role of Reliable Connectivity

With Plum Cases, the Texas Panhandle RAC has connectivity it can rely on wherever it deploys, from mobile hospitals to fire lines to infectious disease response. That reliability has broadened what the council can do in the field and helped it respond faster and deliver quality medical care across the Texas Panhandle.