West Virginia Office of Emergency Medical Services

EPCRs and ALS Intercept Calls

Posted: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 10:11 AM

During recent workshops on the system's new electronic data system, questions have been asked concerning the need to complete patient care reports on responses involving mutual aid - specifically ALS intercept responses. After discussing the different options, the Office of EMS believes it is in the best interest of the patient and the responding agencies that all agencies involved in the transport and treatment provided during transport complete a patient care report. This permits the system to track all agency patient-contacts and ensures all patient care is appropriately recorded. It also appears this is similar to the practice most agencies currently follow when completing paper patient care reports.

There was some concern about the effect this may have on the quality of the data available from the system. However, we believe these concerns can be addressed through a screening process designed to identify multiple patient care records on the same incident. Additionally, I believe each EPCR system has a means to identify the "Primary Role" of the unit completing the report. This data point would be one obvious means for the assisting unit to indicate their role in the response.

With these facts in mind, all agencies involved in the transport and treatment provided during the transport should complete an appropriate patient care record (paper or electronic) and submit as per current policy.

Questions should be directed to Deron Wilkes.

File attachment

pcrs - als intercept.pdf