Triage app streamlines response by Apopka EMS, Florida Hospital
Jennifer Hall still remembers when she worked at a hospital emergency department: The radio would crackle, and an EMT would come online to give a quick overview of the patient in transport, followed by the estimated time of arrival.
In much of the nation, this imprecise and antiquated system is still how ambulances alert emergency rooms about incoming patients. Only the person who answers the radio in the ER learns about the emergency, and then, like the game of telephone, that individual passes on the information to other staff and units.
“We’re in the 21st century. We’re in 2018. And we’re using technology that’s from the 1960s,” Hall said.
But that is changing at the new Florida Hospital Apopka, which Monday unveiled an app called Twiage (prounounced like “triage”).
“The idea is to use a quick Twitter-like notification to notify a larger audience for important messages,” said John Hui, co-founder and CEO of Twiage, which has headquarters in New York City.
Emergency medical technicians and paramedics can share the patient’s condition, vital signs and other information with a few clicks on the secure app. They can also send photos and videos. All the information appears on computers and a digital board in the emergency department and relevant units, alerting the staff, who can ask for more information.
In addition, with a click of a button, the ER staff can locate the ambulance on the map to see a more precise time of arrival.
“It’s just like the Uber app,” said Hui.
Florida Hospital Apopka and the Apopka Fire Department are the first in Florida and the Southeast to roll out the system.
Wendy Elliott, assistant vice president of Florida Hospital’s Neuroscience Institute, learned about Twiage three years ago during an innovation summit at the Cleveland Clinic.
“And I thought, ‘My gosh, that’s great!’” Elliott said Monday. “When I looked at