Home // eTELEMED 2018, The Tenth International Conference on eHealth, Telemedicine, and Social Medicine // View article
Authors:
Khulood Alghamdi
Shada Alsalamah
Ghada Al-Hudhud
Thamer Nouh
Ibrahim Alyahya
Sakher AlQahtani
Keywords: Emergency medical services; Operating room; Emergency department; Electronic health record; mHealth.
Abstract:
One of the major causes of death in trauma cases is ambulance diversion due to the unavailability of resources (bed and specialists) in the closest hospital. To date, there are no solutions in the literature that link Emergency Medical Services (EMS) with trauma centers in Saudi Arabia to avoid Emergency Departments (EDs) crowding and shortages in terms of inpatient bed capacity. Therefore, this study aims to bridge the gap by helping paramedics deliver patients to the nearest trauma center with available resources in the shortest possible time, as well as to monitor ambulance diversion data. This is achieved by regionalizing the availability of resources in the nearest hospitals using a mobile health (mHealth) application and two algorithms: Dijkstra and Fusion. The former helps route the ambulance’s path taken, while the latter predicts inpatient bed capacity. The solution is an effective and time-optimizing application for the rescuer or paramedic, ED Support Officer (EDSO), and EMS administrator. It should help optimize EMS resources, reduce ED crowding, and increase the quality of urgent care services.
Pages: 106 to 115
Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2018
Publication date: March 25, 2018
Published in: conference
ISSN: 2308-4359
ISBN: 978-1-61208-618-7
Location: Rome, Italy
Dates: from March 25, 2018 to March 29, 2018