From AI bots to virtual consults with specialists to remote monitoring, new technology is transforming the often-chaotic Emergency Department and improving efficiency, safety and outcomes.
The Emergency Department is a fast-paced, often-chaotic environment and a major cost and revenue center for the hospital. Aside from being the critical care gateway for patients, it consumes a significant part of the operations budget in staffing, equipment and 24/7 readiness and serves as the entry point for inpatient admissions.
This is also where new technology, from AI to telemedicine and digital health, can have a profound impact on improving efficiency and outcomes.
Join HealthLeaders this Tuesday as a panel of health system executives discusses how new technology is improving the ED for both patients and clinicians, impacting everything from patient wait times to speed to diagnosis to safety. This Winning Edge panel, taking place at 3 p.m. ET, will feature David Chestek, MD, CMIO at UI Health in Chicago, and Anthony Roggio, MD, Medical Director of Telehealth at the University of Maryland Medical System.
Healthcare executives are testing out new tools and programs, often through the EHR, to improve patient handoffs from the ambulance or EMS vehicle to ED staff, along with technology that can more quickly diagnose patients and speed the path to treatment. They’re also trying out new tech to assist often-rushed clinicians, facilitate specialist consults, improve safety and facilitate patient discharges or admissions and transfers.
Some health systems are even moving upstream, using concepts like mobile integrated health and community paramedicine to improve care management and coordination at the scene, connecting first responders with care teams, including specialists, and eliminating unnecessary trips to the ED.
The upshot is that new technology is enabling ED staff to gain a much better understanding of the patients coming in by ambulance, and I’s improving patient flow through the ED to a hospital bed or back home. Technology is designed to remove the pain points, literal and operational, and create a smooth pathway to treatment while reducing workflow issues for clinicians and creating a safer environment.
Join us on Tuesday as we talk about what tech is doing and what it will do to make the ED more efficient and effective.
Eric Wicklund is the senior editor for technology at HealthLeaders.