Organizations that are dedicated to providing emergency medical services must be prepared to make practical and life-saving decisions in a snap. To do this consistently, EMS providers must have access to an emergency medical services system that integrates all the functionalities they need in a single platform. But what capabilities should EMS organizations look for in a program that will empower them to maintain and even elevate the level of service that they can render to their respective communities?
EMS solutions are expected to support a lot of functions, but in general, these capabilities can be separated into 3 categories. These are overseeing the organization’s processes, managing its assets and revenue, and empowering its people to carry out their responsibilities.
Overseeing Everyday Processes
EMS organizations have a fleet of ambulances and crews who are trained to provide emergency care. To ensure that these assets are maximized and made more accessible to the patients who need them, EMS providers must keep a close eye on how their vehicles and personnel are being managed. Here are the tools to do just that.
- Computer Automated Dispatch (CAD) – Instead of having to fill out forms and go through complicated processes before sending an available ambulance to a patient, dispatchers should have an easier and much faster way of doing their jobs. A drag-and-drop CAD that informs dispatchers of the status and location of each team will enable the EMS organization to improve its response time.
- Real-Time Route Plotting and Tracking – Sending an ambulance to a patient is a process that is less straightforward than some people might think. Responses to calls must be coordinated, and there are instances where teams must recalibrate their routes to ensure that they’re maximizing their efficiency. A real-time routing and tracking feature should make it much easier to coordinate the activities of different teams in the field.
- Trip Scheduler and Fleet Manager – Not all situations that EMS providers respond to are emergencies. There are times when they handle scheduled transport and other types of non-emergency medical transport (NEMT) of patients between healthcare facilities. These assignments should be easily accounted for in the software that the EMS organization uses.
Managing Assets and Revenue
To continue providing their services to their communities, EMS organizations must be able to manage their assets and revenue well. This means having to deal with the increasingly complex paperwork required by insurance companies, regulatory and government agencies, healthcare providers, and other organizations. At the same time, EMS providers must be able to give a clear picture of their activities to their stakeholders. These are tasks that their EMS system should be able to help address.
- Billing for EMS Services Rendered – Verifying insurance benefits is a time-consuming and complicated task that EMS administrators and staff members must have to deal with. A system with bill processing features can help EMS organizations keep track of the progress of their billings and enable them to close accounts receivables to continue supporting the services they offer to their communities.
- Reporting Organization Activities – EMS providers also need to generate reports that reflect all aspects of their business. This is another task that administrators may have a hard time attending to on top of managing their organization’s day-to-day operations. An EMS system can take over a chunk of the work needed to produce these reports by keeping a detailed record of all the assignments and tasks that EMS providers carried out within a specific period of time.
Enabling and Developing People
At the heart of an EMS, organization is its personnel. The people who work in emergency services are passionate about their jobs and more than willing to apply their skills and training to help members of their communities. Still, these people need to be managed well in order for them to continue making a positive impact on the lives of others. This can be done if EMS organizations have access to the following functionalities in their EMS systems.
- Crew Scheduling System – A tool for scheduling team members will help an EMS organization manage its staff members well. A reliable crew scheduling system will ensure that there’s always an EMS team that can respond to emergencies and that employees are satisfied with the most current shifts and payroll-related tasks.
- Training Module and Learning System – Switching to a new EMS program can disorient staff members and cause them to work more slowly than they’re used to. If the new program has a training module, then going through that module will help staff members speed up their response time.
- Electronic Patient Care Report (ePCR) – The use of an ePCR is integral to ensuring that patient data is collected in a standardized manner. This information, in turn, is used in generating reports, analyzing resource utilization, and checking the performance of the staff and the organization as a whole.
Choosing an EMS software with these features, similar to the one Traumasoft provides, will enable an EMS organization to focus its attention on providing emergency and medical transport services to the members of the community. For everything else, EMS providers can count on their EMS software to help them accomplish their tasks in an efficient and timely manner.
