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Florida Hospital is the first health care system in the state to use the Twiage app.
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When paramedics rush a patient to the hospital, they traditionally rely on radios to communicate critical information to the emergency department team standing by.
But now, Florida Hospital and local fire departments are debuting an app that allows first responders to quickly provide the patient's vitals, crucial information, videos and pictures while en route.
Having this full clinical picture allows the hospital to efficiently manage resources and accelerate patient care.
"It was hard to believe that in 2017 radio was still the main communication form in the emergency medical services environment," said John Hui, Twiage CEO. "With this new app, first responders can upload all the information about a patient in less than 30 seconds."
The new technology started as an initiative to provide better care to stroke patients, but after seeing its potential, Florida Hospital decided to implement it throughout the system to offer expedited care to all patients.
The Apopka Fire Department is the first in Florida to deploy this new app, and other agencies are expected to join the initiative in upcoming months.
"Twiage allows the hospital to know our exact time of arrival, thanks to a real-time GPS system," said Apopka Fire Capt. Wil Sanchez. "We can also transmit photos and videos, allowing the staff at the hospital to know in real time what we are actually dealing with."
Twiage has been used in Apopka for about two weeks and the clinical teams are already seeing the benefits.
"What I love about the program is that you don't have any confusion with it. This gives us time to prepare for the patients, and make sure we have a room ready when they get here," said Christopher Willson, assistant nurse manager at Florida Hospital Apopka.
