Kiosks a boon to triage nurses, ER patients
An EHR success story
Heading off on a vacation or business trip? Chances are you will encounter time-saving stand-alone electronic check-in kiosks at the airport. Using these kiosks will let you avoid waiting in a long line-up in front of the airline check-in counter and could save you from missing your flight. Now imagine having access to similar technology when you need emergency care at one of Canada’s hospitals. It’s happening here and now in a pilot project that could transform hospital emergency departments across the country.
The Scarborough Hospital (TSH) in Ontario has been using state-of-the art “smart” triage kiosks to assist nurses in rating the urgency of a patient’s need for emergency care. The kiosks are particularly valuable for busy multicultural ERs such as the one in TSH. Besides English and French, the kiosks operate in six other languages common to patients in the hospital’s diverse catchment area.
The technology does not replace the medical support patients receive in ERs, but it’s an innovative supplement to emergency care. Patients can enter information and update their condition by touching the graphic images appearing on the user-friendly monitor screen. The screen also shows a keyboard which allows input in English, French, Tamil, Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Farsi and the Chinese dialects of Cantonese and Mandarin.
Dr. Tom Chan, TSH’s medical director and chief of emergency services, says when it comes to emergency care, quick and accurate communication is crucial. And because the kiosks help to eliminate language barriers, they are particularly useful at TSH, given its high volume of patients from various ethnic communities. TSH serves 100,000 patients a year, hailing from 25 distinct ethnic groups and speaking one of at least 13 different languages. TSH also has one of the busiest emergency departments in the Greater Toronto Area. “Triage is one of the most difficult and essential roles in any emergency room,” Chan explains. “With this tool to help us, patients are more involved. And the more up-to-date ongoing information the medical staff obtains, the better it is for everyone waiting.”
If someone comes in with a sore throat and later starts to experience other symptoms, a headache for instance, the person can enter that information at the kiosk, and it will instantly be flagged at the triage nursing station, keeping the patient’s changing status up to date. This new approach to triage improves the flow of ER patients, making wait times more efficient and interactive and helping to complement the hospital’s use of translation services. When the kiosk is not in use, its screensaver cycles through the different languages explaining how the service works.
The cost of the pilot project is approximately $3 million, half of which has been provided by Infoway. This is money well spent, not only on the immediate benefits to TSH emergency patients and health care providers, but also because of the project’s potential as a model for other emergency departments in Canada, especially those in multicultural areas.
From reduced wait times to improving patient safety and access to quality care, EHR solutions are building a legacy that will make a lasting and positive difference in Canada’s health care facilities in the future.
