Wishard Rolls Out Nation's First Ambulance-Based EMR

Improving Patient Care Prior to Transport

Wishard Health Services—one of the nation’s first hospitals to use electronic medical records more than 30 years ago—has hit another hi-tech milestone, becoming the first hospital in the nation to use electronic medical records in ambulances.

With one of the oldest and largest hospital-based ambulance services in the United States, The Wishard Ambulance Service (a fleet of 25 ambulances) is the first emergency medical services agency to be equipped with new electronic medical record technology that will allow paramedics and emergency medical technicians to obtain patient health history by accessing their hospital’s medical records. This technology, the first of its kind in the world, was developed by researchers from the Regenstrief Institute in Indianapolis in collaboration with the Indiana University School of Medicine and Wishard.

"This system will offer yet another important tool for our first responders when arriving on the scene of an emergency,” said Charles E. Ford, associate vice president for emergency preparedness, protection and response at Wishard. “Quick medical action is essential, and it is extremely important for doctors, nurses and paramedics to have as much key information about a patient's medical history as possible."

Based on a recent study by Dr. Marc Overhage of the IU School of Medicine and the Indiana Health Information Exchange, looking at sharing data and cost savings, there was a $26-savings per visit when data was shared. Given that there are more than 500,000 patient visits in central Indiana, this results in $1.3 million in cost savings for the region.

Electronic medical record technology has been widely recognized for its role in improving quality of care, increasing efficiency of health care delivery, preventing medical errors and enhancing patient safety," said Dr. John T. Finnell, emergency medicine physician at Wishard. He noted that expanding this technology to ambulances greatly improves speed and efficiency of care, while allowing life-saving treatment on-location. "Bottom line, we are the only place in the country that is able to push healthcare data to medics in real-time, which can impact the pre-hospital care provided."