South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) NHS Foundation Trust is delighted to announce the launch of its new Trauma Triage Tool app.
Devised by Els Freshwater, SCAS paramedic and trainee consultant practitioner, the app helps ensure that crews always take critically injured trauma patients to the right hospital, based on their condition and location. This helps patients get the care they need, quicker.
The app works by using GPS functionality to locate the scene of the incident that SCAS crews are responding to, and confirming the condition of the patient. The app is then able to recommend to crews whether the best option is one of the two major Trauma Centres in the region, or the nearest Trauma Unit. It also suggests alternative hospital options, and all this is based on distance and estimated travel time by road. SCAS ambulance crews can also use the app to record ATMIST information (Age of patient, Time of incident, Mechanism of injury, vital Signs, and Treatment given). This helps the paramedics when making pre-alert calls, and also the trauma team when the patient is handed over at hospital.
Mark Ainsworth-Smith, Consultant Pre-Hospital Care Practitioner and SCAS Lead for Trauma, said, “The app has undergone extensive testing and we’re delighted with the results. It gives local people the added reassurance that at times of serious or critical injury, our emergency crews have an additional resource to ensure that patients get the right care at the right place every time.”
The Trauma Tool app is already available within the Apple iTunes store and an Android version is already in development with an expected release date early in 2014.
