Franklin County Emergency Medical Services and Ransom Memorial Hospital in Ottawa, Kan., are committed to high standards of patient care. They partner with The University of Kansas Health System to elevate the level of emergency care they provide for patients in the area who experience cardiac arrest or stroke.
As part of the Redivus Health pilot program, these healthcare professionals recently went through training to use the Redivus Health app. They learned how to use its capabilities to provide step-by-step guidance for diagnosing and treating cardiac arrest, stroke and sepsis.
A New Way of Working
One of the first instances of using the Redivus platform with a patient involved both the EMS team and hospital ER staff in a Code Blue situation. After the Code Blue, Crosbi Schmidt from Franklin County EMS and Angie Welch from Ransom Hospital provided feedback to the Redivus team about how the app worked. Both were impressed with the documentation capabilities that Redivus provided.
“Usually when I go on codes, it is tough to document all the different timers. I use my watch and the timer on the Zoll monitor. And I write things down on a dry erase board or the pad of paper I keep in my pocket,” Crosbi explains.
“The app really helped with timing and documentation. I didn’t have to worry about writing things down because I knew the app would record the exact time we took each action.”
As a member of the EMS team for two years, Crosbi appreciated how Redivus allowed her to worry less about documenting and more about treating the patient.
“It’s helpful knowing I have the step-by-step protocols to follow on the app so I can check those off instead of trying to remember them,” she says. “Knowing you are doing the right things helps take the stress out of the situation.”
Testing and Learning
As director of nursing at Ransom Memorial, Angie runs codes on a regular basis. She’s experienced enough to know the complicated algorithms for treating cardiac arrest by heart. But she sees the value in the Redivus Code Blue app, particularly for documenting a critical situation for hospital electronic medical records.
“The Redivus documentation is amazing,” Angie says. “It documents everything for you: meds, interventions, timers. It’s easy to use and nice to have multiple timers running at once.”
Since this was the first time using the Redivus Code Blue tool with a patient, Angie also had one of her team assigned to the role of documenting the event so they could compare notes.
“It seemed like the documenter was writing more than I was clicking on the app, and the app was much more accurate,” she says. “We saved energy on compressions by giving a 15-second heads up with the timer, and we gave more heads up to get the next dose of epi ready. We didn’t have to write things down so we could focus on the timers.”
Angie realizes that not every person on a hospital staff is as experienced and confident as she is when it comes to a Code Blue.
“The app really takes the role of team leader to a new level by giving you that confidence,” Angie says. “That’s key for people who don’t do this every day.”