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Improve Patient Care with Hospital EMS Data Exchange

Paramedics respond to a patient suffering from stroke-like symptoms. They activate a Code Stroke and transport the patient to a regional stroke center. In the hospital, the patient is discovered to be experiencing atypical sepsis, not stroke. The paramedics and their medical director automatically receive information about the patient’s outcome, offering an opportunity for learning and quality improvement.

A hospital QA manager notices that a STEMI patient didn’t receive aspirin in the ED. But then, checking the EMS chart in the patient’s electronic medical record (EMR), the QA manager learns that aspirin was given in the field, and the case is not counted against the hospital when service line performance measures are calculated.

But how does this happen? In today’s diverse and complicated healthcare system, creating cohesive ways to share information is a challenge. And nowhere is the patchwork of health delivery systems more evident than in the relationship between hospitals and EMS. EMS organizations frequently transport patients to multiple hospitals—and most hospitals receive patients from multiple EMS services, often with varying delivery models. Add first responder and air medical transport services, and the web of agencies, providers and information systems becomes tangled quickly.

The solution, two-way data exchange between EMS and hospitals, is being used successfully in a growing number of hospitals nationwide.  with hospitals having access to EMS information directly in the patient’s chart, and EMS having access to patient outcomes, billing data, and other information that was previously impossible.

Download the educational whitepaper, Improving Care Through Hospital-EMS Data Exchange, to learn:

  • Four ways in which EMS, healthcare systems, payers and patients all benefit from two-way data exchange between hospitals and EMS
  • How data exchange works
  • Case study: How one hospital and EMS agency teamed up to improve sepsis treatment
  • Common misbeliefs about hospital-EMS data exchange (and why they’re wrong)
  • Next steps for agencies and hospitals interested in the benefits of two-way data exchange

 

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