Patient Care Reports (PCRs) via computer

[PeteBlair]

Our volunteer BLS organization plans to move from pen and paper PCRs to PCRs originated by computer input within the next few months. This will be our first step toward submitting data to both NEMSIS and the state.

For those of you who have been or are currently involved in such a move, what tips with respect to hardware, software, training, etc. would you give us?

A bit more background for those who would like more info: Our organization is a 100% volunteer organization, financially supported by community contributions. Or organization is divided into eight rotating teams which means that a person normally works one day out of every eight. We operate around the clock. Depending upon the time of day and the time of the year, we operate from one to three ambulances. Total number of people in the organization ranges from 270 to 380, again depending upon the time of the year. (Hey, man, we're in Florida, land of the migrating snowbird!) We take about 5,000 emergency calls per year and a similar number of transports. The average age of our members would be considered advanced by some and ancient by others. Computer skills range from expert to "how do you work email?"

Any thoughts you'd be willing to share? Since I have been appointed coordinator of the project to make this all happen, I'd really appreciate your input. By the way, the financial aspect of making this happen is not an issue.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions you might offer.

 

[Jon]

Computer literacy training is going to probably be your biggest headache.

There are many programs out there for computerized charting. Some require networked systems and/or special hardware.... some are entirely web-based and only require internet access to use.

 

[PeteBlair]

Our current intent is to eventually use a system that involves cell phone technology, ruggedized laptops, and vendor-hosted data, accessible via internet.

 

[mikeylikesit]

Like Jon said computer literacy will be an issue. i love the things though. it is mostly just fill in the blanks with a drop down box and pick which one works the best. however if you do have some old gruffs they will probably hate the new things, i heard a lot of "damn i could have done this with a pen and paper in half the time" where as with the younger EMT's it is sooooo much faster to type it and usually error free and no need to worry about penmanship.

 

[Bosco578]

We currently use the ePCR. Not too bad,but the PCR print out is a little crappy.

 

[BossyCow]

Make sure you have a policy regarding clearing the patient records off the handheld, notebook, or other unit. If the portable unit is lost, stolen, then the pt information stored on it has been compromised. Make sure policies are in place regarding the download and clearing of it in compliance with HIPAA.

 

[wolfwyndd]

Whatever you decide on, don't get EMSCharts. It SUCKS!

I like the concept of electronic PCR's, but implementing it has been . . . . . challenging . . . . . to say the least. We started doing electronic PCRs in July of last year and after almost a year it's STILL quicker to fill out the paper copy then the electronic copy. Most of our issues have been software related. Yes, we did have some training issues with some of our older members not used to doing anything on the PC, but that's pretty much taken care of itself.

I do have a hardware recommendation for ya though. Panasonic's Toughbooks are AWESOME! http://www.panasonic.com/business/toughbook/laptop-computers.asp

 

[paramedix]

Our company does not use the electronic reporting yet, but another private company does. I have heard good and bad about the system.

Positive issues: It is fast and cut out the paper trend. Billing gets done faster and QC gets the patient info quicker.

Down sides: The guys have complained about battery life and especially when there is limited network coverage, system cannot log on and thus they cannot complete the patient form.

 

[Outbac1]

We use the Medusa system heavily tweaked to our specs on a Panasonic Toughbook. By and large it works well enough but there is a very steep learning curve. When you work a full time schedule you get fairly familiar with it in a month or so. I've been using it about 8 months now and still learn stuff about it. What it can and can't do. If you have a huge part time/casual staff i suspect the learning curve will be steeper still. How good is your IT support? Our service has an IT dept. and they spend a fair amount of time maintaining the system. Buying it is easy, its the support that could be crippling. I suggest you look at it VERY closely.

 

[22Johnny22]

Too Easy

Hey Pete,

I work for an organization that sounds almost identical to yours. Volunteer with about 250 people total averaging about 4500 EMS transports a year. We use a system that has absolutely THRIVED out in the field. The only thing is that the data is sync'd to a PC in your station (meaning you hold all the data yourself) once you get back to the station. We didn't have to buy any additional hardware (in terms of a server).

The toughbooks have been great too. Even the "old timers" who got trained on the system came up to speed rather quickly. I guess its all about how much time you spend actually entering in runs.

And as far as wiping the patient data clean, the system we use has an automatic system log-off. It is customizable and I'm pretty sure that our organization has set this function to be 5 minutes (which is kind of short, but if you leave the laptop for a minute or two in the ED your brought back to the sign-on screen protecting HIPPA).

 

[JAumann]

PCR program

Our department is currently testing out a system from ESO that can use either Toughbooks or a Tablet PC that is more or less just drop and fill. Another nice quality that it seems to have is that instead of typing its set up so that you can just write what you want with the stylus and it transcribes it into the system. I cant tell you much more about it for the simple fact that i havent played around with it that much, but the system is looking like it has potential (especialy to people like me who type with 3 fingers).

 

[emt19723]

at my FT dept, we use EMSCharts.com, and my PT dept. we use EMStat. given the two of them, i prefer EMSCharts. much easier to use and a lot faster doing your charts cuz you dont have to type quite as much of a narrative. flow charts can get pretty in depth though.