The post How Data Exchange Empowers Hospitals appeared first on ESO.
]]>However, advances in data exchange are helping hospitals bridge the gap. By connecting systems and sharing information in real time, hospitals can improve the accuracy of their records, simplify compliance processes, and prioritize better patient outcomes.
Meet and Exceed Compliance Standards
From the first EMS patient contact, maintaining accurate, up-to-date patient records is vital for audits, quality improvement initiatives, and reporting – all of which help hospitals maintain compliance with key healthcare regulations. A modern electronic patient care report (ePCR), like an ESO Electronic Health Record (EHR), ensures that hospitals can easily capture documentation for standards, such as those required by The Joint Commission.
Interoperability solutions like ESO Health Data Exchange (HDE) build on this by securely connecting EMS and hospital systems. ESO HDE allows hospitals to access EMS ePCRs directly within their own workflows, providing the pre-hospital data needed to complete patient records.
For example, a key standard under the “Record of Care, Treatment, and Services” (RC) section mandates that healthcare providers maintain comprehensive and accurate patient care records. By combining ePCR data with hospital documentation through tools like ESO HDE, hospitals can create the detailed records necessary to meet these requirements while reducing the administrative burden on staff.
Simplify Data Collection
Hospitals often face challenges in standardizing how they collect and store patient information. Inconsistent or incomplete records can lead to errors, which makes it harder to meet reporting requirements.
ePCRs help hospitals standardize how they collect and store patient data. By maintaining consistent, accurate records, hospitals are better equipped to meet the demands of regulatory agencies like The Joint Commission and the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services (CMS).
True data interoperability can further improve this process by enabling real-time data exchange between EMS and hospitals, ensuring that vital patient information is available without delays or manual input. Uniform data entry minimizes errors, ensuring information integrity critical for audits and quality reporting. Accurate record-keeping supports compliance with value-based care models, reporting initiatives, and audits that influence hospital accreditation and reimbursement. Hospitals should use ePCR systems that are NEMSIS compliant in order to more easily facilitate state data submissions.
Access Data and Reports
Hospitals are challenged to meet the varied – and sometimes duplicate – reporting requirements of different regulatory bodies. But true bidirectional data sharing through platforms such as ESO HDE and ESO EHR reduces the administrative load by producing detailed reports, freeing up healthcare teams to focus on delivering better patient outcomes.
Many regulatory standards also highlight the need for timely and accurate data, particularly when it impacts patient safety. An ePCR integrated with hospital records provides near real-time access to vital patient information, giving clinicians the data they need for critical decisions. Hospitals should embrace interoperability solutions to avoid system downtime and delays in accessing records. Continuous access to patient data not only supports compliance but can also improve care coordination and outcomes.
Support Quality Improvement
By integrating data from multiple sources, ePCRs offer valuable insights into patient outcomes that can help hospitals meet quality benchmarks and improve care delivery. Hospitals that effectively use their ePCR data are also better positioned to qualify for federal reimbursement programs and incentives.
Strengthen EMS Collaboration with Shared Outcomes
Bidirectional data sharing benefits both hospitals and EMS agencies. Hospitals gain real-time access to EMS ePCRs, ensuring they have the information they need to make timely decisions. In return, EMS providers can view patient outcomes which offers insight into how pre-hospital care impacted results.
This feedback loop improves care coordination, helps EMS refine protocols, and strengthens partnerships between EMS agencies and hospitals.
Take the Next Step: See ESO HDE in Action
ESO Health Data Exchange (HDE) enables hospitals to share and receive patient data securely and in real time. From integrating pre-hospital records, providing clinical outcomes, or simplifying compliance efforts, ESO HDE connects teams across the care continuum to improve workflows and support better decisions.
Ready to see how ESO HDE can help your hospital? Request a demo and discover the benefits firsthand.
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]]>The post 4 Tips for Better Relationships with Your EMS Partners appeared first on ESO.
]]>Pre-hospital data from your EMS providers is key in not only helping your hospital run more efficiently, but in proactively improving the health of your community. Open lines of communication between hospitals and EMS can break down barriers and increase education on both ends of the continuum of care. But how do we get there?
Tip 1: Don’t Be Afraid to Take the First Step
Knowing where to start might feel a big intimidating, but it can be accomplished with simple steps, and it all starts with reaching out to your EMS providers. We get so busy in our daily workflows and processes, we often don’t think beyond our own walls to reach out to our partners who are out in the field. Start the communication with something simple, like possibly asking them, “What is one thing that could make patient hand-off easier?”
They may say something that is surprisingly simple and easily attainable, like a better process to transfer patient data or a more efficient way to alert hospitals that a patient is on the way. Small changes can add up to a big difference, and addressing EMS pain points where you can actually benefits your team as well, from the ED all the way to trauma registrar and billing. Once you’ve started addressing the most obvious areas for change, you can build on that momentum to have more in-depth conversations about other potential improvements.
Tip 2: Create a Collaborative Culture
Now that the conversation is started, really open the doors. Do everything you can to chip away at any “us versus them” mentality and improve communication between EMS and your ED.
EMS agencies should be treated as more than just a partner; they should be treated like they are a large part of your healthcare system family. And they are; statistics show that 20-30% of patients arrive at hospitals via ambulance. The number of patients in your ED of course represents revenue for your hospital, and the choice of where to take a patient is often made by the EMS agency.
Ensuring your processes respect EMS input and time – like honoring CathLab alerts, meeting EMS teams at the door of the ED, and reviewing ePCR info they’ve sent ahead before they arrive – not only benefit your working relationship with pre-hospital providers, but improve the care your patients receive. Using tools to share back patient data and outcomes with your EMS agencies also further benefits your working relationship, and helps them provide better care in the field.
When providers feel a part of the team, they are more likely to recommend your facility to patients and other EMR providers. When you involve them in your hospital process planning and show how data benefits all parties involved, it is a winning effort.
Tip 3: Sharing is Caring
Typically, you’d never say “sharing is caring” in a hospital setting. Of course, here, instead of encouraging the spread of disease, you are encouraging the spread of information. Data points from the entire spectrum of care – from the moment the call is received to the time the physician implements a diagnosis in the hospital – can help paint a more complete picture of what is and is not working.
For example, the ability for EMS providers to share their patient’s pre-hospital conditions en route to the hospital, or in an easily transferrable digital form, saves hospital staff so much time and energy from having to go down that investigation path again. No more copying over information from paper records or tracking down missing forms; time-saved in hand-off can make life-and-death differences in patient outcome, not to mention directly impact important hospital measurable.
Similarly, EMS providers benefit from the data you collect and can share back with them such as outcomes data, billing information, and more. Seeing what might have been missed can improve care for the next call, and there is no substitute for real-world learning. Closing the feedback loop on a patient’s outcome helps EMS improve their own processes, understanding of the community, and training plans.
Easy-to-use software tools like ESO Health Data Exchange are designed specifically for hospital and EMS communication, and can make this two-way communication more reliable and faster. Patient information can be shared securely, in real-time, and in an easily auditable way.
Tip 4: Communication is Key to Continued Success
Now that you’ve got a good momentum going, it’s important to keep those lines of communication with your EMS partners open. Consider ways you can begin to integrate them more into your process discussions. Do you have annual or quarterly meetings open to them? Do you have a way of discussing what is working, what isn’t, what improvements can be made?
It can be intimidating to open up the floor for comments, but they may be having a great idea that could make a world of difference for everyone. Sometimes just meeting can help make them feel more involved and you can both build a relationship and understanding of each other’s roles. Make it informal and relaxed.
There are many reasons why hospitals should care about improving their working relationships with EMS agencies. Not only can it directly impact your revenue with the number of patients the ambulances bring in, it can make real improvements to your processes and overall patient care. Sharing data and insights can offer learning opportunities for all involved, while improving the sense of teamwork. By taking the time and energy to reach out and work together, you’re building the foundation for a stronger collaboration for years to come.
Learn more about how ESO Health Data Exchange makes bidirectional data sharing more efficient, or see how ESO Alerting software improves handoff from EMS to ED.
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]]>The post The Barriers and Benefits of Telehealth Technologies appeared first on ESO.
]]>However, one area that continues to face major hurdles in adoption of telecommunications – despite great potential – is the arena of “telehealth,” or the remote delivery of health care services and clinical information.
According to the Council of Accountable Physician Practices (CAPP) – a group that recently published a primer on the adoption of telehealth practices – the reason for this lag is deeply ingrained in the public mindset and in the health care business structure.
While many current telecommunication services like banking or shopping can function easily without an in-person interaction, the value of a physician is often connected to his or her ability to literally lay hands on a patient. The person-to-person interaction in a doctor’s office notion is “hard-wired” into the health care delivery system through tradition, culture, and payment, and the idea of reducing this interaction is difficult to envision.
However, the CAPP argues that this concept is not fully in-line with modern medicine, and that the value of telehealth is its ability to augment – not replace – the in-person care of a physician or clinical staff. In fact, much of a physician’s job is to manage and guide patients through vast amounts of information, helping a patient by listening, measuring, balancing, consulting, teaching, and weighing risks and rewards. These are all tasks that can be supported by telecommunications tools.
According to the CAPP’s guide (PDF), today’s telehealth technologies can be divided into three broad categories:
- Audio, visual, or web-based technologies that facilitate two-way, real-time communication between patients and providers (also, an important tool of communication between providers within a care team)
- Remote monitoring that allows providers to observe patients in real-time; for example, a remote-controlled video camera that allows a physician to monitor patients in an ICU
- Asynchornous “store and forward” technology that transmits information from patients to providers without requiring simultaneous engagement; for example, an automatic email sent to a physician that includes a patient’s blood pressure data from a wearable device
In reviewing the state of current telehealth technologies and adoption, the CAPP report emphasizes that the key benefit of telehealth is to help overcome time- and distance-related barriers to care. While telehealth does have the potential to help reduce overall costs, this should not be viewed as the primary benefit; instead cost-savings will most likely be seen over the longterm. The immediate focus should center on improving access, quality, and efficiency in healthcare.
The CAPP guide outlined six critical principles stakeholders should consider in helping transition telehealth from a concept to a working business model for the industry. They include:
- Telehealth must integrate – not fragment – care.Telehealth tools are most effective when used within an already-established relationship between patient and provider. Rather than replacing a relationship, telehealth becomes simply an additional way to encounter a patient’s provider or system, offering a new means of delivering integrated, comprehensive care, and supporting the capability to provide value-based care.
- The primary benefits of telehealth are improved quality, access, and convenience, as opposed to short-term cost-savings.Short-term savings should not be considered the most important feature of telehealth. In most cases, the use of telehealth will not fully replace visits but instead augment it. Potential cost savings will be seen more in the long-term as telehealth tools support access and, subsequently, preventive care and disease management, helping reduce the need for more costly interventions in the future.
- Fee-for-service (FFS0 payment policies are a primary barrier for widespread adoption of telehealth tools.Payers must look for ways to liberalize the rules for telehealth reimbursements, with both FFS arrangements and the use of capitation, bundling, and other risk-sharing agreements. Medicare has recently signaled its intent to move in this direction, but it’s currently unclear what impact this will have.
- Lack of uniformity in public and private regulatory structures also inhibits the use of telehealth.For example, state licensing boards must work together to address the challenge of providers needing to be licensed in all 50 state to provide telehealth services.
- Patient education is a key area of focus for telehealth tools and value.The CAPP study found that patients are more likely to try telehealth technology if their physician or clinic staff suggested these services. Patients need to be taught how and when these tools can augment in-person care, the technology benefits and limitations, and even the privacy implications of using the tools.
- Stakeholders must continue to invest in research on best practices.Evidence-based research is imperative to help develop clinical guidelines, expanding to include more complication conditions and specialties, as helping develop clinical workflows into daily practice.
The future of telehealth is undeniably bright and full of potential. Through organizations like CAPP, and the cooperation and input from the network of physicians and clinical staff, there may soon be a day when patients feel comfortable embracing telehealth tools to make their daily lives healthier and their interactions with their health care providers more regular and efficient.
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]]>The post Webinar: Creating Complete Clinical Records appeared first on ESO.
]]>Why Does It Matter?
The Joint Commission requires hospitals to keep the “record of care, treatment and services”, which includes the complete clinical record. And of course, the complete clinical record not only includes treatments provided in the hospital but those outside of the four walls. The pre-hospital data originated with EMS/Fire-based treatment meets the record of care standard and is also exceptionally beneficial within the hospital setting for treating patients effectively.
When data is available in the hospital, physicians use that data to make care decisions and evaluate patient need. In fact, a majority of emergency physicians believe the EMS patient care report is “important or “very important” and prefer an ePCR to a handwritten note.
Data Exchanges Meet Requirements and Provide Critical Information
Only 14% of hospitals use any form of automated data exchange yet having this information is critical. Data exchanges (such as ESO HDE) allow staff to
- reference records and avoid transcription errors – ensuring the correct information is relayed in time sensitive situations.
- Save time on searching for records – no waiting for faxes to come through or searching for manual paper records
- Access EMS records to support quality reviews – both internally and for the Joint Commission, having the EMS record in-hand can assist in achieving compliance
Watch “How to Create Complete Clinical Records” to learn best practices for creating a complete clinical record, supporting Joint Commission compliance and serving your hospital’s most vulnerable patients. Speakers Dr. Brent Myers and Nicole Hayes cover
- The full scope for the record of care (RC) standard
- Empowering EMS to help your hospital be Joint Commission complaint
- Benefits for patients and clinical staff
- Tips for reducing manual errors in records
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]]>The post 7 Must-Have Features for Early Alerting Systems appeared first on ESO.
]]>Since early alerting systems are relatively new, knowing exactly what features to look for can be a little tricky. With that in mind, here are seven features that should be at the top of your list.
- HIPAA compliance: First and foremost you need a system that helps you and doesn’t add risk to your hospital or patients. Always ask vendors if their solution is HIPAA compliant.
- EHR integration: To help create a complete clinical record, your early alerting system should automatically add pre-hospital data to your hospital-based EHR, such as Epic and Cerner. Doing so allows the ED team to make better decisions, faster, and more accurately.
- Photo and video inclusions: A significant advantage to an early alerting system is being able to literally see what patients are coming to your ED. Photos and videos make it easier to identify the severity of cases and begin room preparation for time-sensitive trauma cases such as STEMI and stroke. Seeing a photo of the injury for yourself adds to your understanding in a way that words never can.
- One-touch assessments: Receive better information from your EMS partners when they have quick one-touch assessments available to them in the field. When paired with photos and videos, your team will have actionable information to prepare for patients and deliver better care.
- Estimated arrival times: Knowing the estimated arrival time of EMS helps you prioritize prep and adjust in real-time if traffic, construction or the like changes plans.
- SMS alerts: In a society where our phones never leave our sides, receiving notifications right there ensures you’re always in the loop. This also makes it easier to activate your specialty teams on their phones.
- Admin dashboard: To see a holistic view of incoming patients, their arrival times, the personnel assigned and more, a dashboard view is necessary. When you are managing a chaotic emergency department, the simplicity of a dashboard is a welcome tool.
Early Alerting from ESO
ESO offers early alerting through TrackEMS®, a secure communication tool for hospitals and EMS. In the field, EMS professionals use the TrackEMS® app on their Apple device, such as an iPhone, and hospital personnel can access information online through standard browsers. Learn more about how TrackEMS can improve communications and care in your community.
TrackEMS® is a trademark of Innovative Communications, LLC used under license by ESO Solutions.
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]]>The post When Hospitals and EMS Share Data appeared first on ESO.
]]>From their implementation through use, EMS Coordinator Joshua Ishmael shared these three lessons with JEMS. Here they are, as written in the JEMS article.
- Buy-In Is Essential
When you’re implementing a new system, you need to ensure that you’ve got buy-in from everyone in advance. For us, we made sure we had everyone from technical support to field paramedics in the room to talk about the benefits of health data exchange (HDE) across teams. By creating the buy-in early on, the rollout was much smoother because everyone understood their role and what they gained from HDE.
- Decide on the Right Data
Data sharing is essential for outcome improvement and stronger care delivery systems. However, deciding on the “right” data to share between multiple organizations takes time and planning. I would recommend creating a shared data dictionary so that the exchanged data elements are clinically relevant and can be utilized for improving care.
- Leverage Analytics for Evidence-Based Practice
Receiving and exchanging data are only part of the solution. You also need to take those data points and translate them into evidence-based practices to really see the full benefit of HDE. We’re looking at changing protocols based on the data we’ve received and analyzed.
You can read their full story on the JEMS website or in their case study on our website.
About ESO Health Data Exchange (HDE)
HDE provides true bidirectional data sharing – the EMS record flows directly into the hospital EHR, and hospital clinical outcome information is available to EMS in real time. Data can be shared from or with any EHR or major hospital EMR system in an agnostic “connect once, connect to all” model.
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]]>The post The Future of Healthcare Analytics appeared first on ESO.
]]>As a result, technology leaders are investing more time and brain power into developing new tools that help close the gap between patient care and the provider’s view of the big picture, leveraging data sources that continue to grow at an exponential rate. Today’s “smart” products are prolific in the private sector – from watches that record a person’s health habits, to voice-activated digital assistants in the home that can deliver a wide range of information at a moment’s notice.
It makes sense, then, to investigate how similar smart technologies and analytics can be implemented in healthcare, looking at ways to make procedures and practices more effective and efficient by leveraging the large amount of patient-centric data floating around. This available info, however, can be overwhelming, pouring in from countless different data sources. To be made useful, it must be augmented and combined into easy-to-process views that can help drive decisions through powerful analytics tools.
The availability of healthcare data –and the proper tools to process, analyze, and share it – can improve efficiencies and patient experience throughout the healthcare spectrum. The future for both patients and providers promises to be significantly more seamless and efficient. For example:
- More Efficient Patient Records: Hospitals face no shortage of data and patient records. From admission to discharge, then on into billing, pages and pages of a paper trail have historically followed a patient throughout his or her journey. Today, electronic patient care records (ePCRs) – built and maintained with Electronic Health Record (EHR) software – are gaining momentum, making it easier for providers to access, update, and share important patient information.
- Data, Starting with First Responders: Thanks to mobile technology and open platforms, ePCRs can essentially be started by the first responder, who can gather basic information as well as first impression from the incident. Customizable digital forms can be created to be specific for the most common or time-sensitive health conditions – such as stroke assessment – to ensure that the most important questions are answered and recorded at each and every call.
- Easier Hand-off at the Emergency Department: In the rush of the arrival at the emergency department, digital (and more complete) patient records reduce the hand-off time from EMS to hospital staff, allowing all teams to operate more efficiently and focus of the job of assisting the patient, rather than having to be brought up to speed or completing the same questions again. Physicians can easily pull up all information on the patient, rather than having to call down to the records department for paper copies. This lightens the workload across the spectrum.
- More Efficient Shift Changes: In the same way, nursing staff – who research shows are chronically overworked – can spend less time at shift change, knowing that all data in the ECPR is updated and reflective of a full-patient history. This allows the new shift to jump into action right away, and the outgoing shift to leave on time, promoting better rest between shifts and increased safety on the commute home.
- Lightened Workload on Records Staff: In the past, hospital record staff faced a seemingly endless mountain of paper records that had to be reviewed, inputted, and saved. By utilizing ePCRs, this workload is greatly reduced, increasing efficiencies and staff satisfaction, even reducing the number of stress-related sick days taken by staff. Records that are already in a digital format, and that can be easily reviewed and updated, allow employees to focus on new initiatives and improving the workflow across the records and billings process.
- Better Patient Follow Up: Once a patient is discharged, their health journey is obviously not over. A major cause of concern for healthcare providers (and cost for insurance companies) is readmissions. Today, many insurance companies employ specialists (often nurses) who contact recently discharged patients to ensure they understand all facets of post-hospital care, from their medications to their follow-up appointments. By leveraging healthcare analytics tools that aggregate population information for a specific geographic location, the follow-up specialist can obtain a better understanding of the socio-economic factors any given patient may be facing that could complicate his or her recovery. This demographic information can lead to a more informed conversation, and awareness of red flags.
- More Communication Between Providers for Improvement: New record-sharing software tools allow hospitals to share back information with first responders and EMS teams to evaluate performance and identify areas for possible improvement. The opportunity to openly communicate and review cases and statistics promises to not only improve efficiencies, but patient outcomes as well. This sharing of information may very well help identify new assessment criteria for various diseases and help first responders gather information earlier in the process that providers down the line may urgently need. This data can also help ensure proper state and municipal funding for Fire Departments and EMS agencies who must complete audits and reviews on a regular basis.
- Improved Identification of Areas for Future Healthcare Growth: From analyzing the number of providers in a geographic location, to seeing what the most common ailments or risk factors are in a city or county, healthcare data can help providers understand the best and most needed areas for growth. For example, a specific city may see a high number of age-related diseases or conditions due to the average age of its population. This knowledge can help hospitals not only staff their facilities correctly, but can help healthcare providers identify locations where their specific services may be most in need.
The bottom line is that the data is there, and only promises to keep increasing. By investing time and money into the proper tools, healthcare providers can harness the power of this available information to achieve the Triple Aim and improve all facets of healthcare.
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]]>The post 5 Ways Data Improves the Patient Experience appeared first on ESO.
]]>- More Complete Impression Information
When a call is received and a bus deployed, every moment is critical in creating a positive outcome for the patient. EMS technicians are tasked with assessing and recording a wide array of vital information in a high-stress environment, while focusing on stabilizing and transporting a patient whose symptoms can range from the simple to the life-threatening.
Today’s ambulances can be outfitted with technology that makes accurately recording data easier than ever, increasing the likelihood of patients arriving at the emergency department with complete impression records. Software tools can even be customized for specific incident cases to walk a technician, step-by-step, through an electronic patient care record (ePCR) and ensure that no important data point is missed.
- Easier Handoff to Emergency Department
Now that the EMTs have successfully accomplished the goal of stabilizing, transporting, and recording primary information about a patient, the next major hurdle is handing him or her off to the emergency department as efficiently as possible. This is a key step in ensuring a seamless transition in care, and it’s imperative that the nurses and physicians at the receiving hospital are able to access and utilize the data recorded by the EMTs.
Today, agnostic software tools like Health Data Exchange (HDE) bridge the common “interoperability gap” between first responders and emergency departments by offering a single, agnostic platform that allows EMS to share the run sheet with hospital staff, who can then pull it into the hospital-based electronic health record (EHR) system. Gone are the days of carbon copy paper records that must be shared with various departments throughout the hospital; instead, all patient information is easily ported over electronically upon arrival.
- More Updated and Consistent Records During Treatment
Once the patient is fully in the care of the hospital staff, the ability to easily record and access data continues to play a vital role. In decades past, physicians would have to call down to their medical records department to request specific information, including the EMS run sheet. Today, the use of ePCRs makes inputting patient statistics easier than ever, tracking them seamless, and accessing them as easy as a few clicks in a software environment.
This digital data also helps drive down human error in an environment where hours are often exceptionally long and stress levels high. Making it easier to record data in the most efficient manner helps the nursing staff who are often working with multiple, high-demand patients. Easily viewing a complete, updated record makes it more likely for a physician – or a team of health care providers working together on a complicated case – to make the best treatment decisions possible and achieve more positive outcomes.
- More Efficient Follow-Up
Once a patient is discharged, there is still more work to be done by health care professionals. For example, today, as insurance companies continue to look for ways to drive down costs, many are employing “care coordinators” who follow up with patients via phone and email once the patient has been discharged. These coordinators, who are oftentimes RNs, ensure the former patient understands the instructions for at-home care, have follow up appointments set, do not have questions on medication, and know how to reach out for in-network help if needed in the future.
This support not only increases the likelihood of a healthier post-hospital life, but reduces cost for the insurance provider by reducing out of network emergencies and additional care that could have been prevented. Having access to complete, accurate patient records is imperative to the work of a care coordinator to fully understand that patient’s history and treatment record.
Additionally, members of the hospital’s billing department benefit greatly from accurate, data-rich records in processing payments and receiving reimbursements for care. Rather than recording and transposing stacks of paper records, they can focus their time and attention on the work of processing the claims themselves. This not only makes a hospital’s billing department more efficient, but also helps reduce staff stress and fatigue as they work with thousands of patient records.
- Better Care in the Future
Finally, accurate and easily available data improves the overall state of health care across the board, as it allows administrators and leaders to review incidents and processes to identify areas for improvement. HDE software allows hospitals to share back information with EMS, so that gaps can be noted and plans for improvement can be made.
Digitized records also make it easier to aggregate and dissect data, making it easier to complete audits required at state and national levels, as well as showing the need for additional staffing or support in specific areas. This helps ensure that health care professionals at all points of the spectrum will have the tools, funding, and support they need to deliver the best possible care for future patients.
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]]>The post How the Internet of Things Impacts Health Care appeared first on ESO.
]]>It should, then, be no surprise the health care industry is looking for ways to leverage the emerging technology of the IoT to make health care more accurate, efficient, and affordable. Recent reports estimate that nearly 73% of health care organizations currently use IoT devices for maintenance and monitoring, with another 14% expected to join the trend by 2019. This pushes the health care industry to the forefront of IoT pioneers, and the benefits can be observed immediately.
- More Accurate Care Along the Spectrum
From the moment an EMS agency is deployed to a call, to the day that patient is discharged from the hospital, creating and maintaining accurate patient files is easier than ever thanks to electronic patient care records (ePCRs). EMTs once had to create a patient record on five-layered carbon-copy pads, with each layer handed off to a different department at the receiving hospital. Physicians had to request certain records from the medical records department, and struggle to read the barely legible writing on the carbon copy. Hospital employees had to spend hours filing, searching, or aggregating hard copy records to complete audits, enter data, or find areas for improvement.
Today’s leading electronic health record software offers an agnostic platform that can be easily used by EMS agencies and hospitals alike, with an easy digital handoff containing exponentially more accurate patient impression information. Preset forms can ensure that all the correct impression data is being recorded and help increase the number of complete records delivered to emergency departments.
The electronic records then follow the patient through his or her treatment and are easily reviewed by physicians and hospital staff, helping decrease errors and increase the likelihood of a positive outcome. Digital monitoring devices accurately record patient information, making it easier for physicians to make better treatment decisions. Finally, hospitals can easily share back the data with EMS agencies that are looking to improve their quality of care or working to complete an audit. Improvements in accuracy and efficiency can be seen at every point along the way.
- Easier Data Processing Drives Down Costs
With hundreds of thousands of health data points now available, more accurate pictures of communities can be formed and accessed by health care providers and insurance companies alike. With more informed demographics information, intelligent decisions can be made as to where to build a new clinic, which specialties need to be represented where, and how to attract the right health care providers to the right community.
Similarly, the abundance of data received from IoT devices can help insurance companies get a better picture of the challenges they may face in certain communities and act accordingly. Many insurance companies today employ patient care specialists – oftentimes current or former RNs – to follow up with patients and help ensure they are aware of the next steps of their care, have follow up appointments scheduled, and don’t have any questions.
Even the simple act of ensuring that a patient has a primary care physician identified within the network can help reduce the number of unnecessary ER visits or out-of-network visits, lowering overall costs for insurance companies. Ideally, these savings will be passed along to patients in the form of lower (or, at least, un-raised) deductibles and co-pays, not to mention healthier longer, healthier lives.
- Remote Care Making Access Easier for More Communities
Emerging technologies and IoT devices are making it easier for certain communities – like the home-bound, elderly, or those living in remote settings – to receive high quality health care. Thanks to accurate digital monitoring and easy-to-use communication devices, physicians can “see” more patients remotely, and receive data from patients on a regular basis without needing an in-office appointment.
This capability cannot only help reduce costs to providers, but can improve health outcomes from at-risk populations, offering them more accessible tools for staying healthier. Whether it is a video conference with their PCP, a follow up email from an RN, or easy-to-use tools that allow them to self-monitor and report back to their providers, digital technology is lowering the barriers to communication. The tools can also be extremely useful in cases of natural disasters and emergencies, where it is difficult to get enough health care providers on-scene in a timely manner.
There is no doubt that the key to making health care more efficient means more than just the collection of data; there must also be ways of effectively processing it and then implementing effective next steps based on the results. As IoT devices continue to serve up more and more data points, health care providers must take a step back and clearly define what data is most important in making real-world improvements in their systems and communities. Today’s health care professionals are in the perfect position to make data work for them, and not the other way around. With the right tools and a clear plan, the IoT will continue to drive down costs, save more lives, and help more people live longer, healthier years.
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]]>In fact, those staff members at the receiving end of these detailed records often are hit with the brunt of the weight of health data, with information ranging from medical conditions at time of transport, to admission, treatment and discharge, all the way to billing and follow up terms. These staff members face mountains of paperwork on a daily basis, as they are tasked with crunching the numbers and mining for data required by state regulators looking for compliance, administrators wanting to improve care levels, and EMS teams wanting to review QA.
Staff at St. Elizabeth Healthcare in Northern Kentucky faced just this reality, and the system was suffering from staff fatigue and related absences, like migraines due to hours of staring at screens filled with detailed information. The system processed roughly 35,000 transports a year among its five affiliated hospitals; at the time, only around 60% of records were correctly completed, making accurate comparisons or data mining inaccurate or even impossible. These needs, along with a desire to improve the handshake with its 35 transporting EMS agencies, led St. Elizabeth EMS Community Outreach Coordinator Joshua Ishmael and team to explore the seamless solution offered in ESO Solutions Health Data Exchange (HDE) software.
HDE software is the only platform available today that can connect EMS and hospitals in multiple sites using a variety of EMS and hospital data sources. Thanks to its seamless, streamlined interface and reporting tools, HDE allows bidirectional data sharing between all stakeholders in a secure, auditable, real-time environment. Hospital staff can quickly access patient information recorded by EMS staff, and easily add to the patient record from admission up to discharge and billing. EMS agencies likewise can later review the full patient experience and access key data points to improve their own performance and expedite reimbursement.
Ishmael explained that getting buy-in from all teams and departments that would be involved, the improvements from implementing HDE were immediate. “On day one, we had 98 percent compliance with CSN capture,” explains Ishmael, who partnered with ESO Solutions staff to offer stakeholder training before rolling out the new system. “It was seamless, because capturing the right data had been hardwired into the process.”
St. Elizabeth saw additional improvements including a reduction in staff fatigue and an increased collaboration with its EMS agencies, who were very interested in reviewing transport data and looking for ways to improve efficiencies and performance. To read the full case study, visit the ESO Solutions Case Study library.
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