ACC launches eReport EMS to inform care providers of patient outcomes

Emergency medical services (EMS) providers currently have no means or clinical tools to know the outcome of the treatment they provided to patients suffering from heart attack during transportation to the hospital. In response, the American College of Cardiology (ACC) will launch eReport EMS in 2018 to allow providers to access this information.

“eReport EMS data will help EMS providers and hospitals better understand how this care impacted the patient and discover new ways to strengthen EMS care, as well as help improve quality cardiology care measures overall,” said William Oetgen, MD, MBA, ACC executive vice president for science and quality, education and publications. “eReport EMS also bridges a gap in the continuum of care, so it now reaches from the first interaction the heart patient has with the EMS provider until that patient is discharged from the hospital.”

EMS providers will get access to reports based on all ACTION records where they provided care, though they will not have access to individual patient data. Providers will be also able to view eReports that include metrics of aggregate performance of EMS care, hospitals and overall system of care and how their patients fared at a particular hospital. Additionally, providers will be able to see if patients were diagnosed correctly, the work was performed quickly and the number of patients who improved and went home.

Reports from eReport EMS will be developed using data from the American College of Cardiology’s NCDR ACTION Registry, which is currently utilized by 800 hospitals nationally.

According to a press release issued by ACC, the registry will help hospitals apply ACC clinical guideline recommendations and will provide tools to measure care and achieve quality improvement goals.