Curt Bashford Joins EMSWorld Podcast to Discuss Telehealth in EMS

Bashford and EMSWorld host Mike McCabe reveal why telehealth in EMS is key 

RIDGEFIELD, NJ – March 10, 2022: Recently, GD CEO Curt Bashford joined the EMSWorld podcast as a guest host in an episode titled The Importance of Telehealth in EMS. Bashford and EMSWorld host Mike McCabe discussed the critical role that telehealth plays for EMS in the field. With their respective areas of expertise, the hosts outlined how telehealth helps EMS and hospital teams communicate better and work together to improve quality of care, reduce door-to-treatment times and save valuable time and money.

“Technology is driving very strong change in our industry as prehospital providers,” said McCabe. “It’s bringing all of these parties that are necessary to providing excellent care to the patient together. It’s closing that loop.”

“We tend to think of telehealth as video but there’s cases where video is important and there’s cases where you don’t need video,” Bashford explained. “Maybe if it’s a wound or burn, it could just be a picture. It could be a recording of a stroke assessment. It’s very variable so having a tool that can do it all and adapt to what you need makes a difference.”

GD’s fully configurable telehealth innovations, including e-Bridge Mobile Telemedicine App, CAREpoint Workstation and the new CAREpoint 3, and D-Scribe, enable first responders and healthcare teams to enhance quality of care through:

• Pre-arrival patient registration 
• Alerting notifications and activations 
• HIPAA-compliant sharing of pictures, audio, video and live streaming
• Telehealth video conferencing with EMS in the field 
• Streamlined documentation, time-stamping and storage of case data
• Sharing face sheets and outcomes data from the hospital back to EMS
• Treatment in place, ET3 and MIH-CP telehealth support

EMS using GD’s solutions experience:

• Improvement in process, patient care, communication and cost savings by transitioning 50 EMS agencies from using radio to e-Bridge – Oakland County Medical Control Authority
• Reduced time-to-treatment by 20-30 minutes, transport time of 5-12 minutes and reduced stroke treatment times by 20 minutes using e-Bridge for prehospital notifications – Naperville Valley Fire Department
• Faster time to treatment, improvement in on-site patient care and reduced risk by allowing rural EMS to communicate with emergency physicians through HIPAA-secure live video – Rio Rico Medical and Fire District
• ET3 for Medicare Fee for Service beneficiaries, providing patients reluctant to be transported to the hospital the opportunity to speak to an ED physicians through live video beforehand  – Grayslake-Fire EMS

“I’m a vendor and the tech is cool, but it’s really what are the results of using it, what’s possible and what can we do differently?” said Bashford. “Will there be cost savings, risk reduction and outcome improvements? Then it all starts to come together.”

“You can take [telehealth] and apply it however you want, and it can serve from the basic level all the way to the advanced level to the at-home level,” agreed McCabe. “There’s so many ways to integrate this into our industry.” 

Bashford’s experience at GD spans over 30 years. It includes developing and marketing communications and telemedicine solutions for EMS, hospitals and health care providers. He has overseen hundreds of projects for organizations such as the Fire Department of New York, the Los Angeles County Fire Department and major hospital systems across the country. A former EMT, Bashford is a board member of the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC) Foundation and member of the Career Advisory Board at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT).

Listen to the EMSWorld podcast now.

ABOUT GD (General Devices)

GD is a NJ-based Med-Tech company specializing in mobile telemedicine and telehealth solutions that help EMS and fire first responders, hospitals, and Mobile Integrated Healthcare deliver smarter, 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.