Availabilities of emergency patient registration system using information and communication technology

Objectives: Using information and communication technology (ICT), a system has been established and initiated in the Senshu medical service zone in the Osaka prefecture, since September 2011, to register patients transported emergently to a hospital. This system aimed to understand real time population-based data regarding each case, from pre-hospital care, up to the course after arrival at a hospital. We conducted a survey to verify the accuracy of the data entered into this system.<br>Methods: For one year in 2012, for all the patients transported emergently from the scene in the medical service zone, the totalized values of patient information obtained from the data entered into the system were compared with the actual values obtained from the actual condition survey conducted by the fire department.<br>Results: The system showed a series of information from pre-hospital care up to course after arrival at a hospital, which was obtained from 28,699 of 39,610 study patients. The percentage of patients according to disease, based on the totalized data in the system and the breakdown of the course after arrival at a hospital, generally coincided with the actual values in the actual condition survey of the fire department, except for extremity trauma. With reference to the patients with suspected stroke, there was a gap between the system and the actual condition survey, with reference to the status of selecting a hospital and in the evaluation contents of the quality of pre-hospital diagnosis. Especially, pre-hospital diagnostic sensitivity and positive predictive value were 71.2% and 62.5% in the totalized values in the system, respectively, while the same were 87.4% and 70.9% in the actual condition survey, respectively. Thus, both pre-hospital diagnostic sensitivity and positive predictive value were significantly lower in the system.<br>Discussion: The gap between the totalized values in the system and the actual values in the condition survey of the fire department was mainly caused in the context of accuracy of disease names that were entered by the fire department and medical institutions. This study revealed that the actual situation of patients transported emergently might be known by combining data of the system with the after-action review of individual cases.<br>Conclusion: The actual situation of patients transported emergently to a hospital within the medical service zone can be known promptly by use of this system.