Development of a prehospital vital signs chart sharing system.
OBJECTIVE
Physiological parameters are crucial for the caring of trauma patients. There is a significant loss of prehospital vital signs data of patients during handover between prehospital and in-hospital teams. Effective strategies for reducing the loss remain a challenging research area. We tested whether the newly developed electronic automated prehospital vital signs chart sharing system would increase the amount of prehospital vital signs data shared with a remote trauma center prior to hospital arrival.


METHODS
Fifty trauma patients, transferred to a level I trauma center in Japan, were studied. The primary outcome variable was the number of prehospital vital signs shared with the trauma center prior to hospital arrival.


RESULTS
The prehospital vital signs chart sharing system significantly increased the number of prehospital vital signs, including blood pressure, heart rate, and oxygen saturation, shared with the in-hospital team at a remote trauma center prior to patient arrival at the hospital (P < .0001). There were significant differences in prehospital vital signs during ambulance transfer between patients who had severe bleeding and non-severe bleeding within 24 hours after injury onset.


CONCLUSIONS
Vital signs data collected during ambulance transfer via patient monitors could be automatically converted to easily visible patient charts and effectively shared with the remote trauma center prior to hospital arrival. The prehospital vital signs chart sharing system increased the number of precise vital signs shared prior to patient arrival at the hospital, which can potentially contribute to better trauma care without increasing labor and reduce information loss during clinical handover.
Senshu Trauma and Critical Care Center, Osaka, Japan; Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Chiba University Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba, Japan. Electronic address: taka.nakada@nifty.com.
Taka-aki
TA
Nakada
Senshu Trauma and Critical Care Center, Osaka, Japan.
Naohisa
N
Masunaga
Senshu Trauma and Critical Care Center, Osaka, Japan.
Shota
S
Nakao
Senshu Trauma and Critical Care Center, Osaka, Japan.
Maiko
M
Narita
Senshu Trauma and Critical Care Center, Osaka, Japan.
Takashi
T
Fuse
Senshu Trauma and Critical Care Center, Osaka, Japan.
Hiroaki
H
Watanabe
Senshu Trauma and Critical Care Center, Osaka, Japan.
Yasuaki
Y
Mizushima
Senshu Trauma and Critical Care Center, Osaka, Japan.
Tetsuya
T
Matsuoka
D000328:Adult; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006470:Hemorrhage / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012984:Software; D055986:Vital Signs; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*