National Park Service Hires Software Company to Help Track Emergency Medical Data

Published Date

December 5, 2009

It's good to know that the National Park Service has hired a software company to track data related to all emergency medical incidents. A press release sent out last week announced that emsCharts, Inc. will provide "electronic patient data collection and management of emergency incidents within all of the national parks."

That's great news, but things went somewhat downhill from there, statistically speaking.

The first statistical error -- saying there were 391 units in the National Park System instead of 392 -- might be chalked up to the recent addition of No. 392, which just became official on Oct. 28 when Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial came into the fold. However, when the press release stated that emCharts already operates in Grand Canyon National Park, "one of the NPS’s busiest, receiving over five million visitors, annually," well, then you begin to wonder about whether those who wrote the release did any fact-checking.

Grand Canyon is indeed one of the busiest parks in the system. But it has never surpassed 5 million visitors a year, and has never come close to doing so, not even when you factor in "non-recreational" visits, which can involve anything from delivery personnel to NPS managers from out-of-state. The park's busiest year was 1999, when it counted 4,575,124 recreational visitors. Last year the tally was 4,425,314.

emCharts, by the way, pioneered "real-time and electronic data collection with software products that use the Internet to connect first responders with hospitals and reporting agencies."

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Comments

Submitted by admin on December 8, 2009 - 3:43pm.

How about linking the press release so we can judge ourselves/

Submitted by Kurt Repanshek on December 8, 2009 - 4:01pm.

You're more skeptical than I am, Anonymous. Nevertheless, here you go:

http://www.emscharts.com/pub/pressrelease_112509.htm

National Park Service Adopts emsCharts Software for Emergency Documentation & Management

Technology will be deployed at all parks nationwide

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – November 25, 2009 – emsCharts, Inc. proudly announces today that the National Park Service has chosen to implement emsCharts for electronic patient data collection and management of emergency incidents within all of the National Parks.

The National Park System is comprised of 391 parks covering more than 84 million acres in the United States and American territories, and provides emergency medical services for people who become ill or injured within National Park areas. This results in over 16,000 incidents responded to by over 1,500 EMS providers Service-wide. The NPS has elected to implement the emsCharts system in order to electronically document and collectively report on all incidents occurring in any National Park.

The emsCharts system is already in place at six National Parks including Grand Canyon National Park, one of the NPS’s busiest, receiving over five million visitors, annually. emsCharts, Inc. helped to pioneer real-time and electronic data collection with software products that use the Internet to connect first responders with hospitals and reporting agencies; thus expediting the entire process and leaving more time to focus on patients’ needs. emsCharts, Inc. also offers mobile, offline versions of their web product for use in ambulances, helicopters, and on scene with patients.

Last year, emsCharts developed functionality specifically designed for the National Park Service including incident tracking by United States National Grid Location. This coupled with Bio Surveillance and Injury Tracking will provide NPS Park EMS Coordinators, Medical Directors, Department of Interior Leadership, and Epidemiologists with real-time, nationwide notification when injury or illness thresholds are crossed. NPS leadership can immediately identify injury and illness patterns based on auto-generated reports and real-time alerts.

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