Electronic Emergency Medical Technician Reports –Testing A Perception Of A Prototype

Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) still commonly complete a paper-based report, called a quick reference sheet (QRS) or patient care report (PCR) when they are providing services to patients in route to a medical facility. The paper-based report suffers from many challenges such as being lost during patient hand-off, difficulty writing in a moving emergency vehicle, and duplication of information entry. In order to address the aforementioned challenges, we take a first step toward developing a prototype electronic quick reference sheet. Our prototype was built using the Universal Windows Platform to ensure cross-device compatibility. Nineteen emergency medical technicians (EMT) participated in a test of the prototype. The EMT participants were asked to provide feedback on the use of paperbased versus electronic quick reference sheets. The results indicate that EMT’s prefer the electronic report. Results of this study found that EMTs perceived electronic Quick Reference Sheets as a better way of collecting the information, easier to complete, and a more efficient way of delivering the information to the hospital.