Frequently Asked Questions about the e-Bridge Communication Platform

Since our webinar Introducing the e-Bridge Communication Platform, now available on demand, we have compiled the most frequently asked questions about the communication solution.

e-Bridge is a communications and telehealth platform for EMS and Hospitals. e-Bridge enables live, HIPAA-secure communications between and among First Responder and hospital teams through sharing pictures, audio, video and live streaming. It provides audio and visual alerts and notifications with real-time ETA tracking, and allows 12-lead management from any monitor. With a suite of highly-configurable extensions, e-Bridge allows users to tailor its interface, alerts, buttons, workflow and more.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between what GD offers and its competitors?

With GD solutions, our customers have access to a wide variety of abilities within a configurable platform that can be tailored to meet the specific needs of each team.  Our teams have the clinical expertise needed to help conform our platform to your team's needed, so you do not have to work within a forced process. We pride ourselves on transparency with our costs and have a team specifically designed for customer success, to ensure that the platform is always working for you.

Do you have the ability to list a hospitals on-call physician for notification, questions, and transfers?

The short answer is yes, but the exact answer to your question depends on what you mean by "list".  e-Bridge can be configured to send alerts or notification messages to individuals or groups (teams).  It can also do highly configurable workflows aimed at a specific case type such as stroke, STEMI, trauma, or general medical, that notifies the various teams and individuals and shares the pertinent info.   An on-call physician can be part of that workflow case to engage for notifications and in fact that is common for after-hours notifications of STEMI and stroke teams from home.  There is also a "chat" feature in workflow cases that can be used for questions, etc. as you asked.  Transfers could be part of those case templates, or a specific "Transfers" workflow template could be created if that made sense.  The point again is that e-Bridge is highly configurable to work the way your organization needs it to.  That being said, there are some limitations. If say you are one of several on-call physicians that may need to be notified depending on who is actually on call that day, from your e-Bridge app, you would enable or disable notifications so that you only get alerted for when you are on.  We do not have a scheduler integration at this time.

How does e-Bridge integrate with my CAREpoint?

Through an integration with e-Bridge, users can start cases and alerts, attach EKGs, and start pre-arrival notification forms. There is a button added to CAREpoint that connects to e-Bridge, just a simple click away. 

When I receive 12-Lead EKGs through e-Bridge, how can I pull the reports?

There are a few ways that these reports can be accessed. First, with the e-Bridge WorkFLOW package, this information is captured and stored in the case in real time and can be accessed by anyone on the case. The other option is through the D-Scribe X Intelligence Hub, where each user can have a configured report that is accessed through a web-based portal. 

How can I get my EMS teams to use e-Bridge?

Gaining team buy-in looks a little different for each team but there are some best practices we have seen that have yielded good results:

• Start slowly with a single agency at a time when implementing e-Bridge 
• Begin with one process, or one alert like General Medical or STEMI alerts to get teams comfortable with the platform before rolling out the use of e-Bridge for all patients 
• Emphasize that e-Bridge replaces the need for radio or phone call and saves EMS teams times while allowing them to provide more information to the hospital and reduce the need to repeat report

Baystate Medical Center in a recent webinar mentioned the use of social media to help promote buy-in with EMS using e-Bridge 

Where can I find use cases of other facilities and how they use e-Bridge?

You can find first-hand stories of how e-Bridge is used by hospitals and EMS on our blog. We have highlighted a few below that we think may interest you: 

• EMS and ED Shorten Time of Accurate Diagnosis and Treatment at Naperville Illinois Fire and EMS 
• Reducing 40% of False Lab Activations for STEMI at HCA Chippenham
• Improving EMS STEMI at Northeast Georgia Medical Center 

Can I use this for paging in our hospital instead of an overhead page?

Yes, you can use e-Bridge to alert all teams within the hospital instead of an overhead paging system. We have users that use e-Bridge for discrete code notifications and silent alerts and have created a specific messaging group for their leadership team to be easily added to codes and alerts as needed. e-Bridge can be used for many internal hospital communications including sending messages between teams, requesting resources, announcing open shifts, and more.

How can I get more information about e-Bridge?