In an environment where seconds count, real-time reports in a medical emergency can be the difference between life and death. Real-time, patient care report (PCR) data provides an important link in the continuum of patient care in the hospital – providing insights for hospital clinicians to prepare treatment needs, equipment, and other resources required for patient care. Real-time reporting also provides a precise record that can be used for clinical audit, educational and statistical purposes and service planning. Moreover, real-time reports are a legal record of each assessment observation and the care medication given to each patient in transport. A properly completed PCR ensures protection and can be an essential aid if called to the witness stand in court.
Real-time reporting can and will fundamentally improve your business and your patient care, in several different ways including:
- Saving Time
- Providing valuable, up-to-date information
- Ensuring accurate, legible reporting
- Improving patient records for familiarity
Because of state regulations, and Medicare and Medicaid the the ePCR now no longer an if decision but a when decision. So as the emergency medical field is incentivized to use EPCRs and enhance communication, emergency medical services need to examine how real-time reporting can be used to their advantage. The rest of this article will discuss these advantages.
Saving Time
Real-time reporting saves time, plain and simple – allowing EMT personnel to create a patient care report (PCR) within five to ten minutes, in most cases. With a few touches of a button real time reporting enables patient information import – auto populating “frequent fliers” demographics, vitals, and personal and billing information – including the last pick up and drop off address. Real-time reporting communicates with the emergency destination to ensure a fast and calculated handoff between EMT and emergency staff, further eliminating transfer inefficiencies.
For example, you’re on a frequent dialysis call, taking a patient to and from a dialysis center. With an EPCR, a medic can simply flip-flop the pick-up and the drop off address, so your PCR on the return trip is simple and fast. In addition, an EPCR gives EMTs the ability to do an EMS or first responders worksheet, so when an engine first rolls onto the scene, they can take the real time information, and transfer it over to the responding crew with the tap of a button.
Providing Valuable, Up-to-Date Information
Real-time reporting provides better data, which leads to a faster treatment process and more comprehensive and accurate billing (no under billing) – accentuating a faster cash flow cycle. By recording countless details such as patients’ age, gender, main complaint, and medical history, EMTs can view extracts of highly detailed data. For example: EMTs can see aggregated information involving males 50 and older complaining of chest pain, or hypoglycemic diabetics on hypertension medications. The search options are practically endless and provide valuable, up-to-date information that can be used to better treat patients.
Ensure Accurate Legible Reporting
An immediately visible advantage of an EPCR is the elimination of handwritten, often incomplete reports, which increases accuracy and ensures completion. In a “before and after” Georgetown University EMS study conducted between 2009 and 2010, researchers saw a 36- percent increase in EMS physical exam documentation completeness with the implementation of EPCRs as they require a medic to complete certain fields in order to close or save the report. Referred to in the EMS world as, “closed call rules,” virtually all EPCR systems allow administrators to define required fields for all reports, increasing accuracy and completion.
Improve patient records for familiarity
Most EPCRs have the ability to digitize an agency’s paper PCS forms, refusal forms, and authorization forms required for patient transports. Furthermore, all patient data such as name and date of birth, auto-imports into the system and populates the appropriate fields. As a result, all the patient’s data is transferred to the emergency destination’s care giver. They simply pick up where the first responder left off, eliminating the double entry of data and saving the medic time.
Emergency situations call for timely and accurate responses. The more time a first responder can save, the more attention a medic can give to a patient. EPCRs have proven to save time from data entry, deciphering handwriting, and confirming patient information prior to submittal more quickly. Providing real-time report data is vital to giving EMTs and first responders the tools they need to do what they do best, treat patients and save lives.
To learn more about how ePCR can help you with compliance and at the same time turn the adoption of the ePCR into an advantage for your medics and your business please feel to contact us for a custom demo.