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VISZAPP - a tool for rapid patient urgency assessment, admission, and care monitoring and evaluation in emergency departments

Background

In 2010 the Danish emergency departments will be fewer, but larger which leads to an increase of patients within the units. This induces logistic challenges and demands considerable resources. For instance the phenomenon of "over-crowding" in the emergency room may occur, where a large number of patients blur the clinician's overview and increases the risk of overlooking patients requiring immediate attention.

In cooperation with the regional hospitals in Viborg, Silkeborg and Skive Logica has developed and implemented VISZAPP(Visitation Zap Application). VISZAPP is a tool for assessing the need for care and prioritizing patients even before actually arriving to the emergency departments.

Methods

A specialised integration engine for healthcare is used to retrieve data (Patient data, initial complaint, trauma data, physiological parameters and a triage score) in a web based application, integrate the data into the hospitals EHR and PAS system and present the data on both PC and 42 inch electronic boards on different locations in the emergency reception areas.

Results

All relevant data are saved electronically. There is no double-registration. No incoming patients are left "unknown". Specialised paramedic teams are standing by when the patients enter the emergency departments. The administrative work is reduced by 80%. The clinical condition of all incoming patients is assessed according to an evidence based triage model (ADAPT). No cases of "over-crowding" in the emergency departments.

Conclusion

Viszapp was implemented 23rd March 2010. That is why it is not yet possible to conclude whether or not the capability of "knowing" the clinical condition of the patients before arrival to the emergency departments has given a significant difference to patient health outcomes. However, the system facilitates the initiation of further assessment, documentation of patients and is an effective tool for department organisation, monitoring and evaluation.

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Correspondence to Lykke Burmølle Andersen.

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Open Access This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Andersen, L.B. VISZAPP - a tool for rapid patient urgency assessment, admission, and care monitoring and evaluation in emergency departments. Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med 18 (Suppl 1), P40 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1186/1757-7241-18-S1-P40

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1757-7241-18-S1-P40

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