HOW AMBULANCES WITH LAPTOP ENHANCE OUR FLASH MEDICAL DRIVE

OTHER NEWS CLIPS

By Brian Messenger
bmessenger@eagletribune.com

Electronic ambulance reporting increases revenue, accuracy

Area ambulances are going paperless in an effort to raise revenue and increase the accuracy of the patient reports sent to hospitals and insurance companies.

The new technology is now being used by emergency medical technicians in Andover and Methuen. The communities also purchased specialized printers for a pair of area hospitals.

By filing reports on laptop computers, EMTs can now transmit patient information to emergency rooms before they arrive at Lawrence General Hospital and Holy Family Hospital in Methuen.

"We went into this corroboratively," said Andover fire Chief Michael Mansfield. "It's certainly more of an efficient and effective way of doing business."

North Andover Town Meeting has also approved $50,000 for the electronic reporting equipment.

Now that a software compatibility problem has been resolved, North Andover fire Chief William Martineau said the town expects to begin using the new computer system in June.

"The benefits will be clearer, more concise reports," Martineau said.

The electronic systems eliminate the need to file patient care reports by hand.

After a patient is treated, Mansfield said the reports are sent to billing companies.

Processing and mailing the reports every week used to be time-consuming, he said.

"Any time you're doing something manually, you're always dealing with the chances of somebody not documenting things as accurately as they could," Mansfield said.

After the billing company processes the reports, communities are reimbursed for their services by insurance companies. Now, those bills are processed much more quickly, Mansfield said.

Andover began filing the electronic reports in late December.

"It's (making) it more efficient for everyone involved, from the EMT on the street to the chief keeping track of statistics," said Andover fire Lt. Robert Stabile.

Methuen fire Chief Michael Gallant said the city began filing electronic reports in September.

"It's going well," said Gallant. "The people in the office love it because they don't have to read the handwriting of the EMTs. The accuracy of the reports have gone up quite a bit."

Mansfield said Andover stands to collect at least $90,000 more in revenue by using the new reporting system.

The town generated $915,238 from ambulance services last fiscal year.

Methuen collected $1.3 million from ambulance services in fiscal 2008. Gallant said the city is also expecting up to a 10 percent boost in revenues by filing the reports electronically.

"Nowadays, that's very important," said Gallant. "Every penny counts right now."

The equipment - laptops, printers and software - cost less than $50,000 for each community.

"The system will have paid for itself within four to six months," said Mansfield.