BROOKFIELD, Wis.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--EmOpti, a pioneer in tele-triage technology that allows healthcare providers to conduct video consults with patients from multiple emergency rooms, today announced their award-winning solutions are available for free for 90 days to healthcare systems preparing for the surge in COVID-19 cases. As a result, more emergency departments will be better equipped to balance their surging workload while providing faster, safer and better care.
Established five years ago, EmOpti is built upon the understanding that current emergency department staffing models can lead to inefficient care delivery, poorer patient outcomes and increased costs. With the average door-to-doctor wait time in many facilities an hour or more, emergency departments can quickly become stressed when patient volume exceeds both space and physician availability. As the nation faces this unprecedented crisis created by the spread of the COVID-19 virus, concerns about further patient overcrowding and resulting provider safety risk are paramount.
“Emergency departments have long struggled with overcrowding, which can result in long wait times, medical errors, increased mortality, longer hospitalizations and decreased patient satisfaction. But it also results in increased stress and safety concerns for medical staff,” said Ed Barthell, MD, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of EmOpti. “As we face this crisis as a nation, we are making our solution available for free for 90 days to hospitals that need the speed and safety offered by our tele-triage capabilities.”
Already used in hospitals across the country, more than 300,000 EmOpti supported remote patient consults have reduced wait times and improved emergency department efficiency. Leveraging the EmOpti platform in conjunction with their own electronic medical records, large-scale health systems are now expanding the use of “tele-triage” solutions in order to quickly and safely move patients through the care process. Unlike traditional telemedicine applications, which are typically used by one provider talking to one patient at home, EmOpti focuses on patient flow in busy emergency departments and other acute care facilities. EmOpti technology enables multiple physicians at multiple tele-triage sites, located safely away from infected patients, to quickly gather key medical information, speak with patients via a video screen and implement next steps of care, such as testing, additional consult, admission or rapid discharge. Moreover, nurses can leverage the system for remote teaching for patients being discharged, further reducing risk of exposure to on-site staff.
As a result, the number of patients seen per hour per clinician can be upwards of three times that of in-person consultations, with the door-to-doctor wait time reduced to nine to 11 minutes. Emergency treatment bays are saved for the most critical patients instead of those waiting for test results or to be seen by a doctor. And front-line healthcare workers are better protected, which is vital as hundreds of hospital worker quarantines are already in effect across the country. Both physicians and nurses on quarantine can continue to contribute to patient care by providing remote consults from anywhere through the EmOpti platform.
“The fact is, we need to triage and discharge patients as rapidly as possible to maintain a safe level of capacity. That requires patients to see a doctor quickly after arriving to determine if they need to be tested and treated due to COVID-19 or hospitalized for other serious health concerns,” said Paul Coogan, President of Emergency Services, Advocate Aurora Health. “We have utilized EmOpti in multiple emergency rooms throughout our system for the past three years, and we do hundreds of remote consults every day. Now we are planning to expand its availability to more quickly triage patients while protecting our providers as much as possible in response to the pandemic.”
To learn more about the 90-day free trial, interested parties are encouraged to visit emopti.com/covid-19.
ABOUT EMOPTI
EmOpti provides technology to improve patient flow at busy acute care facilities, utilizing existing medical staff in new ways that combine on-site and virtual resources. This helps health systems handle the variable patient demand caused by unscheduled visits and patient surges more effectively. EmOpti’s technology is proven to support high volume, complex, multi-facility deployments with high reliability. For more information contact www.emopti.com.
