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Emergency Medical care
Background
Thousands of lives are lost every year in India for want of immediate medical attention, especially during an emergency. Over 30% of critically ill or injured persons die before reaching a hospital. Andhra Pradesh has a high number of diabetics and hypertensives with their attendant complications, leading to medical emergencies. Andhra Pradesh also has a high number of road accidents. Data shows that the State has recorded a total of 42,678 road accidents, resulting in 3,051 deaths and 51,230 injuries during 2005. Providing emergency health care is a race against time. It requires team work, inter sectoral coordination and commitment. Information- communication technology (ICT) has the potential to minimize the time lag between the call for help and the actual care delivered. It could therefore save lives and mitigate the long term complications of the accident.
Brief review of standard solutions and their limitations
Pre-hospital care in India is non existent and this leads to death or debilitating long term complications due to the accident. Emergency protocols, if any, begin only after the patient reaches the hospital. Vital signs, and any information about patient condition is not available to the hospital before-hand, leading to the loss of precious moments.
Outline of proposed project
The project is to design a emergency medical system using ICT, with the objective of providing appropriate and timely medical attention to a patient during an emergency.
Envisioned project deliverables
A network of the service providers listed below should be attempted, using ICT enabled techniques to fulfill the larger objective of taking medical care to the patient.
1. Medical Service providers
¢ Hospitals, both public and private
¢ A referral/hub hospital which will host the active telemedicine unit E.g. Amrita Institute/KIMS
¢ Police department, fire and ambulance services
¢ Blood banks
2. Database Maintaining
¢ patient medical records
¢ hospitals providing emergency medical services
¢ Blood banks and donors
¢ Trained paramedics to attend to the patient as soon as possible after the emergency

3. Emergency Medical Service Responders
Paramedics
EMT-I - Emergency Medical Technicians -Intermediate
EMT - Emergency Medical Technicians - Basic
ECA - Emergency Care Attendants
System Description
The EMS system manages information about services rendered to persons by EMS agencies. Beginning with the Calls for Service module, all data pertinent to the incident and resulting services provided is captured. The Billing system utilizes information gathered from the EMS modules to calculate and bill for these services.
CALLS FOR SERVICE
This module tracks all calls for service for emergency vehicles and personnel. An emergency medical number (such as 108 for EMRI) would be publicized and all the calls will be received at the emergency call center.
Call center employee search from the list of services and location from which each service is provided
Based on the type of emergency, the corresponding nearest available service providers will be notified to the emergency location by the system.
MEDICAL SERVICE PROVIDER INFORMATION
The medical service providers (Hospitals, Police department, fire and ambulance services, Blood banks etc.) would register themselves with the Emergency Medical Care system. The registration process will capture details such as “ List of services provided and the location from which each service is provided. For example, a hospital may have multiple branches and can offer services as blood bank and ambulance.
The service provider will record details of pre-hospital care provided while transporting the victim to the nearest hospital. This information will be utilized to monitor the effectiveness of the emergency medical care.
PATIENT INFORMATION
A series of modules provides comprehensive data capture for the patient and the medical personnel administering treatment, including:
Type of Service used by Patient - Hospitals, Police department, fire and ambulance services, Blood banks.
Nature Of Problem
Mechanism Of Injury
Treatment Given
Injury Site/Type
Patient History
Patient Vitals
Patient Lookup
ADMINISTRATION
Maintains personnel information. This selection also provides an INVENTORY selection, which tracks medical equipment, supplies, and medication; files are automatically updated as inventory is used. Included is BUDGET, with modules providing basic account establishment, with transactions records updating the amount remaining in the account.
PARAMETERS
A parameters selection provides the means to specify rates for mileage, wait time rates, flat rates and other agency-defined criteria for emergency vehicles.
EMS BILLING SUBSYSTEM
This system provides entry of billing information for individuals and insurance companies. Service information from the EMS Information modules is translated into dollar amounts so that total charges for the medical service can be billed. The system prepares billing forms and records payments from individuals and insurance companies.
Current menu selections are:
1.Account information
2.Account re-assignment
3.Account billing payment
4.Billing Information to insurance companies