Digitalization of major incident rescue

Abstract text (incl. references and figure legends)

Introduction Rescue in a major incident (MI) is a complex activity, which includes the organization of the rescue and medical treatment of many injured people. It is necessary to coordinate the work of emergency medical service (EMS) teams and other services (firemen, police, civil protection...). Good information support provides fresh data about the condition, treatment and location of the injured. Material & Methods In Slovenia, we are developing a digital application for major incidents (AMI). AMI has been tested in MI exercises. All data about the injured is entered by the EMS teams on a smartphone, tablet or laptop. Anyone who treats the patient can see how the care has gone up to that point and add their own data about the treatment of the patient. Results The Medical Incident Commander (MIC) always has fresh data on the number of injured, their triage category and their location. MIC also has fresh lists of patients who have been or will be transferred to a particular hospital. This data is updated automatically, eliminating the need for communication via radio or mobile phones. Hospitals have a complete overview of which patients who are still in the field will be sent to them, what injuries they have and what care they have received. AMI gives hospitals more time to prepare for patient admission. We are also developing an upgrade of the AMI with a communication environment (CE) that will enable multimedia connection within the healthcare sector and also between other services. The CE will include the possibility of voice or video communication, the transfer of short messages or longer texts, maps, web pages, documents, photos and video transmission. All traffic in the CE can be recorded (traceability), which enables retrospective analysis of the course of the intervention in an exercise or in a real MI. Conclusions Digitalization of emergency rescue is key to improving the care of injured persons and a more efficient organization of emergency rescue in MI.

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AMI is a product of a cooperation between MediaInteractive (IT company) and Zdravstveni dom Kranj (Community health centre Kranj). Authors have no financial benefit from their participation.