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News release
03/30/2005
EMS Goes High-Tech With CAD Computers
Reprinted with permission of the Sulphur Springs News-Telegram, Jan., 24, 2005 front page article
Hopkins County's emergency medical services and billing departments will operate more efficiently thanks to a $70,000 computer automated dispatch system.
Patient information will be more thorough and enhanced, with more uniformity and less paperwork and duplication.
"It's an extension of the billing program," said Hopkins County Memorial Hospital's Communications Supervisor Russel VanBibber. "It allows us to input field data and gives us computer-aided dispatch, which means we now take all the information down in the computer instead of having to write it all out then go back and enter it into the computer."
The program for billing [Sweet-Billing] was implemented in 1999 by Sweet Computer Service, now known as Ortivus North America, Inc. On December 17, more equipment and software was purchased, and the computer-aided dispatch (known as the Sweet-CAD system) put in place last week. Dispatchers now have three new desktop computers and billing clerks two new desktop computers, complete with the new software and program.
Paramedics will begin utilizing the eight new laptop computers full time on calls to input patient information in the field beginning Feb. 7. The past month has been spent getting the software in place and tailoring it to EMS's needs.
Overall, the new system is estimated to reduce the time needed for data entry by approximately 80 percent. In the past, each call generated approximately 15 pieces of paperwork which with the new system is expected to take only three, because the information is stored in the computer system on a central computer, VanBibber estimated.
Dispatchers will take the emergency calls as usual, input the call data into the computer which, in some instances, provides electronic mapping, according to VanBibber.
As paramedics are assessing the medical situation and providing emergency care, the field data is entered into [the Sweet-Field Data program, on] the laptops either utilizing the keyboard or flipping the screen around to utilize the "touch screen" feature.
Paramedics will still be required to call the medical facility with information on the patient that they are bringing in, but the click of a few buttons sends the report to the central computer, where it can be accessed by the billing offices.
Before the new Sweet-CAD computers were available, paramedics were required to write the information by hand on paper forms before entering it into the computer during "down time" after their call is completed. Dispatchers were also required to enter the information from the paper "call cards" into the computer. "On average, it should take nine to 10 minutes to take a call where before it was 20 to 30 minutes per call," VanBibber said of the dispatcher's jobs.
Trainers from the program company [Ortivus North America] were at the hospital working with communications and EMS supervisors, and EMS shift commanders and field training officers all week, teaching them to use the new system, and how to train the paramedics and emergency medical technicians on their crews.
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About Ortivus:
Ortivus offers integrated software solutions for Emergency Medical Services and Public Safety. The North American Subsidiary develops and markets the following pre-hospital applications: EMS billing, patient care reporting, computer-aided dispatch, automatic vehicle location, mobile data application, and patient vital signs monitoring and data transmission.
The Ortivus vision is to be the customer’s preferred provider of integrated information and decision-making software support systems in the Emergency Medical Service, Public Safety and Healthcare industries.
Ortivus operates out of two North American corporate office locations (Decorah, Iowa, US and Montreal, Quebec, Canada), as well as several international locations (Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Great Britain).