Smartphone App for Iowa First Responders Reduced Trauma Center Notification Time by 12 Minutes Compared to Traditional Methods.
Regional Expansion of TraumaHawk App Used in Westward of Iowa Helped First Responders for Quicker Collision Notification of Hospitals.
Iowa, United States
Project TraumaHawk: Improving Patient Outcomes Through Photographic Trauma Site Documentation Phase IV: Regional Expansion
Summary Information
Harnessing the power of technology and internet, through smartphone applications (app) for example, would certainly facilitate identification and reporting of serious road crashes to hospital trauma teams quicker, thereby providing the trauma centers with more time to prepare for incoming patients compared to the conventional ambulance crew notification. This multi-phased study developed TraumaHawk, a smartphone app for law enforcement and first responders in Iowa, to connect pre-hospital emergency care to hospital trauma teams, by allowing the first responders to generate and send a report with vital collision information, as well as photographs, to the receiving trauma center. Early development efforts for the TraumaHawk app started in 2013, with testing taking place around 2013-2014. In this Phase IV of the study (around 2019) the researchers directed their attention to the expansion of the TraumaHawk service area into central and western Iowa, which would require an additional server and secure computer infrastructure, as well as training for trauma and law enforcement in the new areas. Overall, this study involved continuously monitoring and evaluating the performance of TraumaHawk.
METHODOLOGY
Throughout the project, the number of TraumaHawk alerts and the time difference between when TraumaHawk cases were alerted and when the trauma page (notification of the receiving trauma center by the ambulance crew) was activated across the east central Iowa State Patrol network were monitored. Due to the limited availability of TraumaHawk phones, the number of reported crashes remained low relative to the total number of severe crash possibilities, with 69 TraumaHawk cases out of 905 motor vehicle crashes.
FINDINGS
- Results showed that about 63 percent of the TraumaHawk cases had alerts that occurred before the trauma page. These TraumaHawk cases provided an earlier notification to the Emergency Department (ED), allowing the ED charge nurse to make sure that the appropriate facility and human resources are prepared and standing by, providing more time to organize the necessary care plans for the incoming trauma patients.
- Results showed that the TraumaHawk app used by first responders in Iowa by sending vital collision information and photos facilitated quicker (by 12 minutes) notification of hospital trauma center compared to traditional ambulance crew notification.
- Results also indicated that the maximum amount of time of a TraumaHawk alert coming in was 90 minutes prior to the traditional ambulance crew notifying the receiving trauma center.
- These results continued to show that there was a time advantage (up to 90 minutes as mentioned) for the ED when a TraumaHawk alert was issued.
