Hayward Area Memorial Hospital recently began using Twiage, a smartphone app created to improve communication between emergency responders in the field and personnel in the hospital emergency room. HAMH is the first hospital in Wisconsin and the only independent Critical Access Hospital in the country to use this new technology that will help save lives.
"The addition of Twiage will greatly improve our communication and increase our ability to prepare for incoming emergencies," said Dr. Dayle Quigley, Medical Director.
The new app allows emergency medical service providers (EMTs) to send real time data, such as, patient vitals, photos, videos, voice and text messages directly to a computer in the hospital emergency room which triggers an alarm to announce a transmission from an EMT. Scenes of an accident are often noisy. The interactive app allows information to be communicated efficiently and clearly, saving the EMT critical time at the point of care.
Photos help emergency department staff understand the scope of the trauma and determine the patient’s needs prior to arrival. "Pictures and videos provide a lot of useful information in the event of a trauma,” said Dr. Quigley. “They relay symptoms, such as sagging face or slurred speech in a stroke victim or pictures of an EKG allow heart issues to be identified early.”
Twiage classifies how serious the patient's condition is based on color coding. Red is for the most serious and then yellow and green. The app uses GPS to track the location of incoming ambulances, so the Emergency Department can prepare for a patient’s arrival. The EMT will be able to photograph driver’s license and insurance cards allowing the patient admission process to begin prior to arrival.
“We highly value patient confidentiality,” said Dr. Quigley. “The Twiage smartphone app deletes all information from the cellphone once transmission has occurred, assuring HIPAA Compliance.”
If you would like to learn more about Twiage visit http://www.twiagemed.com
Last Update: Apr 26, 2018 11:21 am CDT
