Hospital rolling out new data software
Kettering Health to get real-time EMS information system.
Kettering Health Network is rolling out a new health data system that will make trips to the emergency room more efficient.
With the help of new health data software, Kettering hospitals will soon be able to receive information from first responders in real-time, streamlining the process of admitting patients, bridging the gap between pre-hospital and hospital care, and allowing doctors to focus on treatment rather than managing logistics.
Traditionally, first responders call a receiving hospital to let staff know an ambulance is on its way and patient information is handed off from EMS workers to care providers prepared to start treatment. But sometimes ambulances don’t time have to call, and EMS charts can arrive either incorrect or incomplete, causing precious minutes to be wasted at the hospital re-evaluating patient information instead of beginning treatment.
Kettering Health administrators said the new system will make patient handoffs quicker and will mean patient information can be accessed in near real-time by hospital workers, improving the level of care they can provide.
“Right now, we have an EMS record and we have a hospital record (for a patient), and oftentimes those can contradict each other,” said John Weimer, network vice president of emergency and trauma services at Kettering Health Network. “So, with us being able to sync that information together ... it impacts all the outcomes on the back end.”
Premier Health, the other major hospital network in the area, rolled out a similar system earlier in January, using the same company’s technology during a six-month pilot program with EMS agencies in Middletown, Brookville, Monroe, New Jasper and Tipp City as well as Dayton Fire, Englewood, Trenton and Union Township Miami County.
Using ESO’s Health Data Exchange and TrackEMS software, first responders will be
able to send patient information to a receiving hospital automatically, allowing logistics specialists at Kettering Health’s new $10 million command center to alert staff to be ready to receive a patient before they even arrive.
“So as (first responders) are documenting and putting down vital signs and medical conditions, that will actually start to flow over immediately and it will alert in the ER,” Weimer said. “They’re sending us this information, we know that they’re closest to this ER, so we can start working with those providers at that facility ... and (we can) help them prepare for what patient they’re bringing in. It streamlines the process.”
Local fire chiefs and other emergency agencies have been pushing for a system like this for years, and with the command center now operational, Weimer said it is the next logical step.
“When both partners see the value. It makes it easy to operationalize something,” he said.
The cost of the system is worth the value of “having the right information at the right time, and as fast as possible,” and will not increase the cost to patients, Weimer said.
“We can remove the logistics and let our care providers give the care. Let us do the back-end stuff. It supports them and it has better outcomes for our patients and coupled with taking two teams and putting them together and sharing that information, I mean, our patients only benefit,” Weimer said.