Mobile Web Enabled Check-in of Patients at the Emergency Room: a Win.Win.Win Method Featuring Active Patient Participation and Collaboration.
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Abstract
Background
Emergency Rooms (ER) all over the world are being flooded by people seeking medical attention. Managing incoming information is a growing challenge for safety and efficiency. Triage has a limited influence on the ER process, as it does not promote efficient processing as much as it attributes an accurate degree of emergency. All information that contributes to an adequate determination of the emergency and/or improves the process in the ER, is considered valuable by the medical team. We aim to allow patients to present more information sooner, feel involved in the process of care, participate and collaborate in improving the process of the care we deliver to them. Time spent in the waiting room is considered “waste time†in process management. By involving the patient in the process during this time we achieve the following: actual conversion of waste time into productive time from a management point of view, we allow active collaboration of the patient in the collection of relevant information and thus the care process, we actively influence the subjective feeling of Collaboration of the patient or his or her proxy. This also positively influences what is now called “patient outcomeâ€.
Methods
Patients or their (identified) proxies are given the opportunity to check-in to the ER from home, over mobile Internet, or in the ER waiting lounge (either over Wi-Fi, or on consoles in the waiting lounge). They fill out an easy questionnaire, ticking boxes. They can provide additional information if they think it is relevant. The information is routed to the ER medical record. This way, the patient becomes an active contributor to his/her medical record.
Results
The result is an early announcement of arriving pathology, and/or starting information reporting when sometimes there was no documented information before. The information entered by the patient or the proxy, is not always quite the same as what the patient tells the nurse or doctor orally only. It is to be considered an optional additional source of information, and is experienced to be very valuable by both physician and nursing staff. It is an additional element for the medical record and constitutes an objective and subjective form of participation and collaboration of the patient in his or her emergency care, or the care for their family of friend when it is done by a proxy.
Conclusions
We present a web-enabled form of direct participation by the patient (or his family/colleagues/friends) in the Emergency Room process. This has clear medical, social and personal benefits, in an emergency situation. For the patient, it also can change the perception of involvement and improvement, and is a very real form of participatory and collaborative Emergency Medicine. And it has a positive effect on patient outcome.
Emergency Rooms (ER) all over the world are being flooded by people seeking medical attention. Managing incoming information is a growing challenge for safety and efficiency. Triage has a limited influence on the ER process, as it does not promote efficient processing as much as it attributes an accurate degree of emergency. All information that contributes to an adequate determination of the emergency and/or improves the process in the ER, is considered valuable by the medical team. We aim to allow patients to present more information sooner, feel involved in the process of care, participate and collaborate in improving the process of the care we deliver to them. Time spent in the waiting room is considered “waste time†in process management. By involving the patient in the process during this time we achieve the following: actual conversion of waste time into productive time from a management point of view, we allow active collaboration of the patient in the collection of relevant information and thus the care process, we actively influence the subjective feeling of Collaboration of the patient or his or her proxy. This also positively influences what is now called “patient outcomeâ€.
Methods
Patients or their (identified) proxies are given the opportunity to check-in to the ER from home, over mobile Internet, or in the ER waiting lounge (either over Wi-Fi, or on consoles in the waiting lounge). They fill out an easy questionnaire, ticking boxes. They can provide additional information if they think it is relevant. The information is routed to the ER medical record. This way, the patient becomes an active contributor to his/her medical record.
Results
The result is an early announcement of arriving pathology, and/or starting information reporting when sometimes there was no documented information before. The information entered by the patient or the proxy, is not always quite the same as what the patient tells the nurse or doctor orally only. It is to be considered an optional additional source of information, and is experienced to be very valuable by both physician and nursing staff. It is an additional element for the medical record and constitutes an objective and subjective form of participation and collaboration of the patient in his or her emergency care, or the care for their family of friend when it is done by a proxy.
Conclusions
We present a web-enabled form of direct participation by the patient (or his family/colleagues/friends) in the Emergency Room process. This has clear medical, social and personal benefits, in an emergency situation. For the patient, it also can change the perception of involvement and improvement, and is a very real form of participatory and collaborative Emergency Medicine. And it has a positive effect on patient outcome.
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