New functionality allows hospitals to notify EMS of ED availability, improving efficiency, collaboration, and patient care
BOZEMAN, Mont.- Pulsara, the leading mobile telehealth, communication, and logistics platform that unites healthcare teams and technologies across organizations during dynamic events, recently released a new feature on their platform that allows healthcare facilities and EMS agencies to access ED Availability information directly from the platform. With this added feature, critical details about a hospital’s capability to accept patients can be easily updated by each facility and will appear to EMS and Ambulance crews when choosing a destination. This means improved decision making for EMS and faster, more efficient care for patients in their most critical moments.
“Pulsara is finding innovative ways to uncover and leverage vital information about the healthcare network in real time and in ways that were previously impossible without modern, cloud-based technology,” said Erich Hannan, Chief Technology Officer of Pulsara. “With ED Availability we’re taking all we’re doing to the next level, giving our customers better data to guide EMS decisions within their current workflows, mitigate surge during large-scale emergencies, and help connect patients with the closest available care in any emergency.”
The Pulsara platform is a HIPAA-compliant, secure, easy-to-use app that unites the entire care team — even if they are in different departments or organizations. By replacing multiple phone calls, radio reports, faxes, and pagers with one unified patient channel, Pulsara enables more efficient patient care from start to finish. ED Availability further expands the power of the platform, helping to match EMS demand with hospital supply.
ED Availability is especially important in the midst of the ongoing pandemic as cases continue to surge or remain high. By knowing which hospitals have space or resources for additional patients, Pulsara can help more efficiently mitigate patient surges and hospital strain.
Not only does ED Availability help prevent adding patients to an already overwhelmed facility, but it also assists medics in preserving EMS unit utilization hours. Medics can save time for their patients and their own crews by verifying a facility’s ability to accept their patients before spending time driving there. Higher utilization translates to lower costs per transport and higher efficiency for all teams involved.
Once a hospital enables ED Availability in Pulsara HQ, they can make status updates in a matter of seconds to ensure EMS always has the most accurate picture of their availability. For example, if a hospital is in the middle of a COVID-19 surge, they can alert EMS that their hospital is at capacity. Or, if a critical resource, like the CT scanner, is down at a facility, EMS can be alerted through the Pulsara platform and redirect their trauma patient to a facility with the right resources.
Pulsara’s ED Availability feature also fits naturally into EMS teams’ existing workflows; medics receive these real-time availability insights at the same time as they’re selecting a destination facility — no need to navigate to another screen or platform. The value and ease of this information for medics incentivizes hospitals to keep their status up to date.
“ED Availability is a game-changer,” said Tim Hakamaki, Senior Vice President of Product Development. “While EMS and Hospital teams will benefit and see major efficiencies from the feature, ultimately it’s the patients who win.”
About Pulsara
It’s about people. During the most critical moments in life, Pulsara unites distributed teams and fragmented technologies as dynamic events evolve on a scalable communications and logistics platform, improving the lives of people in need and those who serve them.
We envision a world where needless suffering is eliminated because communities can unite and communicate without friction. Studies report an average decreased treatment time of approximately 30% when using Pulsara, the evidence-based standard of care. For more information, visit www.pulsara.com.