HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Walker county EMS in Huntsville recently made a key investment in technology that is helping them improve patient care, especially for those that have experienced a medical emergency like a stroke or heart attack.
“Everything we do wants to be data-driven, and evidence-based as far as our medicine goes, and so if you don't have data you can't improve," Assistant Director of Walker County EMS Chris Toman said. "What gets measured, gets improved. So we've got all sorts of data points now from every type of call from how we manage personnel to the calls, we run in the field, cost analysis, everything like that."
ESO software is changing the way first responders collect, share, report, and analyze critical information. Local EMS agencies, fire departments, and hospitals alike can be connected like never before.
“We run a patient, a call, and that patient is taken to the hospital, about 24 to 48 hours later, depending on the disposition of the patient, we'll get outcome data sent securely back to us, where in the past you would have to go through charts and make phone calls and deal with all sorts of red tape to try to prove who you are and why you need this information,” Toman said.
Not only are those at Huntsville EMS happy about the latest additions, but doctors and nurses working at hospitals like Houston Methodist are satisfied as well.
“That transparency alone has been vital because I think that's very important. You know because that's how you learn," Houston Methodist Neurologist Nhu Bruce said. "You learn by saying this is what I saw. I took the patient there then you learn how what the power how they did in the hospital, and what the studies show.”
With all this added and accessible information, EMS and first responders in Walker County can bolster their knowledge by repeating things that worked well, and changing things that didn’t.
“We're all trying to benefit the community. We're all trying to elevate the level of care that's provided not just you know, continued pursuit of excellence within our hospitals," Hospital EMS Solutions Director at Houston Methodist, Sterling Taylor said. "We also want the EMS agencies to have all they need in order to raise their level of care walls, as well.”