Emergency services worldwide are facing increased pressures to improve response times. Emergency medical services (EMS) providers are now looking for innovative ways to maintain a high quality of service with a lower cost. There is a need now for emergency responders to be able to send information from the response site to the hospital before arrival. Sending insurance and preliminary treatment information over prior to arrival makes check-in and processing much faster.
Patient Registration
Rugged tablets for first responders automate patient check-in registration, gathers insurance information, and collects health history while the patient is on the ambulance or prior to going to the hospital. With rugged tablets, patient intake is streamlined by replacing paper forms on clipboards while avoiding costly and error-prone transcriptions. With the COVID-19 pandemic, many healthcare systems are adjusting operations to ensure safe practices. One of the most common practices being adopted is paperless patient check-in and registration using rugged tablets with antimicrobial enclosures to reduce the spread of bacteria.
Digital Charting
To improve efficiency and data sharing, emergency medical services (EMS) organisations are adopting digital charting. Healthcare institutions can automate patient check-ins, registration, and health history collection with a portable rugged tablet to improve the speed of service for patients. As for the patient, this also means that medical information is always up to date and can be accessed quickly enabling quicker treatment and faster recovery.
Billing Services
While still in route to the hospital, emergency medical teams can send insurance information and treatment pre-qualifications all from the rugged tablet. Rugged tablets for first responders can be outfitted with the latest, secure, and encrypted credit card reading swipe in chip readers.
With the appropriate software integrations, rugged tablets allow for one entry of data that can be viewed by dispatch, first responders on the scene, and hospital staff in real-time. Information exchange improves patient care because electronic patient charting ensures all accessible information can be accessed at any time by any party involved in in-patient care. Integrated billing services minimises the paperwork for patients and allows for services to be billed faster and medical teams to be paid more quickly.
Utilising rugged tablets in healthcare benefits the patient-centric experience model, streamlining processes and improving communication, collaboration, data management collection, and workflow efficiency. First responders are turning to innovative technology to assist during high volumes where information needs to be collected and processed quickly so more patients can be treated during this highly trafficked time to improve internal operations and external care.
Written by DT Research April 12, 2021
