Maine EMS Set to Start Electronic Run Reports

Trying to read the hand-printed reports filled out in the back of moving ambulances is one hurdle.

Then compiling the total reports for each of Maine's 287 emergency response agencies is the next hurdle.

The state is now jumping both obstacles with a new electronic data processing system that is expected to be more efficient and to cut costs in half.

On Jan. 1, the new Maine EMS Run Report System, a statewide Web-based data collection system, will go live and allow ambulance crews and first responders to upload their runs by way of a Web browser.

"I just got the report for the first quarter of this year," Chuck McMahan, director of Bangor's Capital Ambulance, said earlier this month to demonstrate how long the process can take.

The state, which has been collecting hand-written ambulance and emergency response data since the late 1970s, has wanted for years to change how it processed the run reports, Jay Bradshaw, Maine EMS director, said Thursday.

The data are used to track medical trends, including the spread of disease and prevalence of medical conditions, and allows Maine EMS officials to adjust services provided and change statewide protocols.

The new recording system is designed to be easy to use, with automatic prompts and pull-down menus that can be customized with individual lists.

"As services get more sophisticated, they'll be able to arrange things for their service," Bradshaw said. "For example, Bangor Fire [Department] could have their drop-down list with Eastern Maine Medical Center and [St. Joseph Hospital] at the top."

The state now prints a quarter-million four-part forms every year and sends them to 200 or so ambulance services in Maine and another 85 to 90 nontransporting first responders that report to Maine EMS, a bureau of the Maine Department of Public Safety, which coordinates all emergency service activities.

It's estimated that 80 percent of these services have some sort of access to the Internet, but "only a handful have, right now, committed to the January 1 start date," Bradshaw said.

That soon will change, he said, adding that "it doesn't take a special computer" to update the information, only one that can access the Web.

Those without immediate access to computers may "take notes and go to the library to make the data entry," he said. Other responders who can afford it will have laptops in their vehicles and will be able to upload the information automatically.

Once on the Maine EMS Web site, ambulance crews, with their own user name and password, can create run records that are automatically dated and issued a call number. From there, they're prompted through three pages of patient and incident questions that parallel the current four-page duplicate forms, with the last page being for billing.

On the site, crews can create run report tallies for one day, a week, a month or longer.

Electronic reporting eventually over the next 18 months will eliminate the need for paper duplicates and all the manual processing and will make the process much more efficient, Bradshaw said.

"By going to an electronic data reporting system, we'll have information that is useful, instead of just interesting," he said. "It will not only make it more efficient, but when this is finished, it will also save significant money.

"Eighteen months from now, we won't have to pay for printing the forms, shipping the forms, or pay to input the data," Bradshaw said. "It will probably save in excess of $100,000."

The Maine EMS budget for data collection now is about $200,000, so by cutting the paper forms, the cost is expected to be cut in half, Bradshaw said.

Maine started amassing run reports in 1977 and made it mandatory to collect and report the runs in 1982. Maine EMS joined with the state's Center for Disease Control to initiate the program.