To:  All ER Nurses, Emergency Physicians, Surgeons, and EMS personnel

The Regional EMS Time Out Report  has been designed by ER Nurses, EMS Paramedics, Emergency Physicians and Trauma Surgeons from the STRAC region.

The purpose of the EMS Time Out process is simple;  Improve communication at the critical moment of patient transfer of care from EMS to ER clinical staff.

The Go-Live date for the Regional EMS Time Out Report is January 1, 2016 at 0700 hrs.

The EMS Time Out process includes a standardized verbal report method and a documentation form for the ER to capture the verbal report.

Benefits include:

• Improved communication between EMS and ER staff through a standardized patient report utilizing the MIST acronym.
• Reduction in:
  • patient care complications  (inadvertent extubation, IV lines pulled out accidentally, etc)
  • equipment damage (cables cut, etc) by performing patient movement  after the verbal report, not during the report  (patient remains on EMS stretcher until report has been given).
• Improved compliance with the required DSHS EMS ‘drop card’ or hand-off report, hospitals agree to rely on the Regional EMS Time Out Report (attached document) which is filled out by the receiving nurse at the time of report.
• Improves continuity of care by tying together the EMS ePCR report with hospital electronic medical records (EMR): both the EMS run number and hospital visit number are included on the Regional EMS Time Out Report form.

The Regional EMS Time Out process was created in the STRAC Emergency Department Operations (ED Ops) Committee, which has members from all major healthcare systems, including directors/managers from Baptist, Methodist, Christus, University  SAMMC, SW General and Nix, along with EMS leaders from SAFD, UT Office of Medical Director, Schertz, Acadian, Methodist AirCare, San Antonio Airlife and other EMS agencies.  The ED Ops committee had several goals for 2015, one of which was improving EMS-ER relationships and patient transfer of care.

Please use the link below to watch a quick 5 min Brainshark video on the Regional EMS Time Out Report and follow your ER dept or EMS agency’s policy for documentation on this training video.

Regional EMS Time Out Training Video with Attachments: 

Viewers will “Sign the Guestbook” to receive credit for completing this training. 

http://www.brainshark.com/strac/ems-time-out

Anonymous View: Regional EMS Time Out Training Video:

Please note, your department may require confirmation of completion for this topic. If so, please use the first link included above.

http://www.brainshark.com/strac/ems-time-out-no-credit

Eric Epley
Executive Director
Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council for Trauma (STRAC)
210-233-5850  – work
210-233-5851  – fax

@eepley
eric.epley@strac.org
www.strac.org