How Communication is Solving Emergency Department Challenges

By their very nature, emergency departments are challenging places to work. These challenges can be made even more difficult if the technological systems in place aren’t up to the job of handling the complexities of emergency care. One of the best ways to alleviate these issues is to take a communication driven approach to solving emergency department challenges through modern technology solutions.

How Outdated Tech Contributes to Hospital Inefficiency 

As with any other organization, effective communication in hospitals is key. The details matter, and if they can’t be communicated effectively, the likelihood of downstream bottlenecks increases.

Unfortunately, antiquated communication systems often make matters worse. Legacy voice-only systems can create major communication gaps, resulting in ambulances arriving unannounced, specialty teams unaware, treatment delays, increased operating costs, and medical errors. 

Consider the issue of inefficient alerts for different medical teams about in-bound patients. Specialized teams such as STEMI, Stroke or Trauma are sometimes activated later than they should be. It can be difficult to quickly give updates or to call off the order once they’ve been activated. On top of that, there is rarely a proper mechanism to record all call audio and data for case review, QA and medical-legal documentation.  

Fortunately, thanks to recent advances in telehealth and digital communications, hospitals are able to communicate with EMS prior to the patient’s arrival with data-rich information, real-time ETA and documentation. This enables the ED and specialty teams to be the best prepared for simply seamless care. In the process, they’ve been able to reduce risk, save time, money, and most importantly, save more lives.

How the Latest in Communication Solutions Solve Emergency Department Challenges

In a high stakes environment like a hospital, it’s critical to develop and maintain effective communication regarding patient care. One way to do this is by ensuring you have today’s communication technology to enable smarter team-wide communications. That means right from first medical contact by EMS, to arrival at the hospital and intervention by specialty teams.  

With these goals in mind, General Devices created the new CAREpoint 3 workstation for hospital care teams that:

• Consolidates EMS phone and radio communications plus integration of forms data, 12-leads, and email for more seamless EMS to ED communications that better prepares the ED and reduces surprise ambulance arrival from EMS

• Seamlessly connects with e-Bridge to extend your care continuum and provide fast, discrete alerts, notifications, data, pictures and video to care teams anywhere
• Automatically records and documents all case data and audio with the powerful D-Scribe X intelligence hub for QA review and reporting, risk mitigation, conflict resolution, and legal documentation

The ROI of Upgrading Communications

As hospitals across the country improve their telehealth systems, the improvements in efficiency, staff morale, and patient outcomes soon follow. One example comes from California, at Providence Holy Cross Medical, they:

• found potential cost savings of $21,000 by reducing support and maintenance costs of repairing antiquated systems and upgrading to CAREpoint
• improved quality assurance and legal documentation 
• easy access to 24/7 support 

A suburban hospital in Tennessee has measurably alleviated their emergency department challenges. Using both CAREpoint workstation and e-Bridge communications platform, they’ve been able to:

• Decrease STEMI treatment times by 20 minutes 
• Improve communications with first responders 
• Standardize care and alerting systems throughout the hospital

From these initial results alone, it’s easy to see that even small upgrades to existing communication solutions can result in major improvements. To learn more about how you can improve patient outcomes and hospital efficiencies, click here to schedule a discovery of our communication solutions. 

About GD (General Devices)

GD is a HealthTech company specializing in communications and telehealth solutions that help EMS and fire first responders, hospitals, and Mobile Integrated Healthcare deliver seamless, expedient patient care. Powered by responsive innovation, GD’s e-Bridge and CAREpoint solutions facilitate secure, mobile communications and rapid data sharing across acute and non-acute care teams to help save time, money and lives. Backed by a 40+ year history and thousands of implementations, GD is a widely revered industry leader. Visit https://general-devices.com/ to learn more.