Facilitating the collection and dissemination of patient care information for emergency medical personnel

摘要

The information that emergency medical technicians (EMTs) collect at the incident site is typically communicated verbally to the emergency department (ED) prior to arrival. However, communication by verbal channels can introduce lags, is limited by human recall and attention, is repetitious, and often lacks consistent and sufficient detail. To fill this gap, the work herein describes the design of a mobile data entry system for EMTs and a desktop-based data display and messaging system for charge nurses in the ED. With the system, EMTs can enter the case type, patient details, assessment, vitals, and treatments. After the EMT sends the report, the charge nurse can accept the patient, assign a room and resources, and further message with the EMT. Design choices were based upon stakeholder analysis. Since the data and data entry required of the EMTs can be extensive, non-sequential, partially available, and case dependent, the app was designed to avoid open-field typing, employ a compact navigational strategy, dynamically generate fields adapted to the medical scenario, and switch between editing and reviewing a report in context. The design was implemented into an interactive wireframe for testing on smart phones. Usability evaluation was performed via heuristic evaluation and user scenario testing with EMTs. On average, users could complete a typical, time-sensitive case in 66 seconds, which is near theoretical estimates and current means of verbal communication now done via phone and radio.