During any kind of widespread emergency, medical care facilities and agencies may have to facilitate the evacuation, transportation, and continuing care of many vulnerable patients.
The amount of information needed for even one patient is significant, let alone the hundreds of patients a medical care provider might have to arrange care for in any kind of disaster. When Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, it became apparent there was not a seamless way to transfer information to ensure that vulnerable patient care would not suffer in the event of an emergency.
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services have released a new emergency preparedness rule and guidelines for inpatient and outpatient facilities in terms of how to prepare for natural disasters and other types of emergencies. Here’s a step-by-step on how WatchPoint's AtRisk Registry can help your facility during an emergency situation.
Step 1: Sign in to the secure cloud-based portal
Our secure cloud-based portal allows for individualized access to patient information— each user is given access only to information they’re authorized to see. Additionally, the cloud-based portal enables users to access information anywhere, anytime.
Step 2: Edit and Access Patient Information
Vulnerable patients’ information can be accessed during an emergency, giving you control over who can see the information, and updating in real-time for emergency responders. Critical information like location, caregiver information, and medical equipment needs can be added for patients in need of emergency responders.
Step 3: Attach documents
Documents like medical records, medicine lists, patient consents, and more can be attached to patient files. This makes it significantly easier for emergency responders to facilitate any required treatment of patients.
Step 4: Updates
The way your registry is updated, depends upon the kind of facility you are. Outpatient care facilities, as well as home health care and hospice facilities should update their registries weekly. Inpatient care facilities, like nursing homes and hospitals can update their registries when a disaster is imminent. Government agencies can then use these registries to plan for evacuation, transportation, and continuing care of vulnerable patients.
Step 5: Automatic Updates
During an emergency event, updates can be sent to emergency officials on the local, state and federal level of change in patient needs. Facilities can monitor where their patients are taken during an evacuation. These updates will go out automatically to anyone who is registered to receive them in your WatchPoint AtRisk Registry.
Step 6: Emergency Managers
Information preloaded into the WatchPoint AtRisk Registry can be used by emergency planners on the local, state, and federal level to make plans for the evacuation and rescue of vulnerable patients before emergencies even occur.
WatchPoint’s AtRisk Registry makes communication between facilities and emergency officials much easier. It limits the risk that any patient will be left behind in any type of emergency.
Brightgray Solutions is ready to walk you through how we can help your facility prepare for the care of your at-risk patients during an emergency.
