Improving Emergency Response to Motor Vehicle Crashes: The Role of Multi-media Information

The motivation for this study is to reduce the adverse impacts of trauma caused by motor vehicle crash (MVC), including rural regions, where crashes account for a high percentage of trauma injury and death. One key aspect of reducing adverse effects of MVCs is to improve emergency medical services (EMS)—that is, to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of emergency and transportation services to respond, clear the scene of the crash, provide patient care, and take a patient to the correct hospital. The study centered on a 6-month demonstration of a multi-media (voice, video, pictures, data) EMS application (“CrashHelp”) in the greater Boise area. For the pilot test period, 1,513 CrashHelp reports, 306 digital images, and 1,121 voice recordings were sent by 81 paramedics to 8 hospital emergency departments (EDs). EMS and ED staff generally thought the system was easy to use, captured useful information, and could play a role in enhanced clinical decision-making. The voluntary nature of the pilot program did result is some inconsistency of use over time and this limited the extent to which the information was utilized. In summary, when the system was used it was found to be helpful. Therefore, future efforts should focus on protocols and procedures that would allow for easy integration of multi-media information in the workflow of crash response and subsequent hospital care.

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