Laptops in the rig

[jar81993]

I ran with a small rural BLS service and we had laptops in them, the only thing we could do is use it for GPS.

How many people have laptops in them what can you do on them? can you get on net? if so how?

 

[NomadicMedic]

Yep. Toughbooks.

We use them for patient reports with ePCR "tablet" software and as an MDT with Zoll Navigator. It's got our dispatch info, GPS and more. It's pretty cool. when we arrive on scene, the GPS knows where we are and marks us arrived without even having to touch the computer.

And yes, we get on the net with them through a sprint wireless card that's integrated.

We just switched to ePCR from paper reports and while it's a bit of a pain to enter all of the data, it is certainly a LOT faster than hand writing! (and in my case, easier to read!)

 

[trevor1189]

Yes we have panasonic toughbooks. Not sure of the model, but they do have to touch screen. They are mounted up front on a swivel dock. They have a copy of EMStat on them for us to chart on and a nice electronic hazmat guide. The docks are also equipped with verizon wireless aircards so we can access internet without wifi.

 

[Simusid]

We have a toughbook in each unit running AmbuPro EMS PCR software. There is no GPS or internet though. I'd like to see that added.

Speaking of internet, and this may be better served in another thread, I've wondered about the benefits of adding an EVDO modem to the truck itself. Operationally, the truck could continually report its position. This could help with dispatch. Imagine a realtime bing or google map that dispatch can monitor to direct the truck to the destination.

Medically, I would love to send a 12 lead from the scene to the cath lab. Also, we send a voice report to the ER. I realize this is a REAL stretch to say this is useful, but imagine a simple app that lets you pick sex, age, priority, chief complaint, vitals, treatments, etc... press "send" and it immediately alerts the ER staff that you are inbound.

Just thinking out loud on a friday! B)

 

[wolfwyndd]

We have toughbooks. The only thing we use them for (at the moment) is our Patient Care Reports and we're using EMSCharts for that. There's been talk of attempting to do GPS but I don't think it'll happen.

 

[wolfwyndd]

Medically, I would love to send a 12 lead from the scene to the cath lab. Also, we send a voice report to the ER. I realize this is a REAL stretch to say this is useful, but imagine a simple app that lets you pick sex, age, priority, chief complaint, vitals, treatments, etc... press "send" and it immediately alerts the ER staff that you are inbound.

Most 12 lead monitors have that capability built in. It's usually kind of an add in card that you have to pay extra for but it's really not that expensive. As far as I know, we're the only EMS service in the county that does NOT do that yet.

 

[abuan]

having the capability of transmitting 12 leads is awesome. but just like any other piece of machinery, they sometimes fail.

it's really key in trending also.

 

[WolfmanHarris]

We have a toughbook mounted in the back with a peripheral touch screen and keyboard mounted up front. They run our ePCR software and the Ministry of Health Locator program through the truck's modem. We can also use them to access the internet, but it's incredibly slow. About the only thing that works right is the service's intranet so I can check my e-mail and schedule or access our Quality Reporting Software to report defective/missing equipment, vehicle problems, etc. The whole system is also used to send data from our LP12 to ePCR or for transmitting 12 leads for the STREAM trial we're doing.

(As a research control we can't do interpretation for thrombolytics, it has to go to the on-call cardiologist who confirms and randomizes the pt. for enrollment into a study group. Otherwise for STEMI's we do interpret ourselves.)

 

[Fbarba123]

Do you mean Personal Laptops? Or ones that assist with CAD/ Dispatch/ AVL?

 

[looker]

Do you mean Personal Laptops? Or ones that assist with CAD/ Dispatch/ AVL?

He means should he provide laptops to his employees when they start rolling. He is "starting" a new ambulance company and doing all of his research on this type of boards. It sounds like he got no prior experience in this field at all.

 

[HNutley]

We have the toughbooks with EMStat on them. I think they are great and it is nice being able to do the PCR and get it done on the long transfers we have so when we get back to the station we can clean the rig and go home. Also it can be read. Ours does not have GPS capability which sometimes would be nice to have.

 

[HNutley]

We have a toughbook in each unit running AmbuPro EMS PCR software. There is no GPS or internet though. I'd like to see that added.

Speaking of internet, and this may be better served in another thread, I've wondered about the benefits of adding an EVDO modem to the truck itself. Operationally, the truck could continually report its position. This could help with dispatch. Imagine a realtime bing or google map that dispatch can monitor to direct the truck to the destination.

Medically, I would love to send a 12 lead from the scene to the cath lab. Also, we send a voice report to the ER. I realize this is a REAL stretch to say this is useful, but imagine a simple app that lets you pick sex, age, priority, chief complaint, vitals, treatments, etc... press "send" and it immediately alerts the ER staff that you are inbound.

Just thinking out loud on a friday! B)

I love the idea of being able to transmit the information you have here. That would save so much time. Our service has talked about going with telemetry where we could send the 12 Lead to the ER but because of where we live, we have a lot of dead spots, we would probably have to stop the truck on the side of the road once we found a signal to transmit and wait for it to go through. But definitely an app to send the vital info ahead would be great. Especially if you are too busy doing patient care and can't get the radio report to them prior to your arrival.