Emergency medical services may make use of an electronic patient records system, which allows data logged into the emergency medical care report to be viewed in real time by the unit about to receive the patient. The receiving unit may be, for example, a hospital emergency room or a health care clinic. If an electronic emergency medical care report is not available, the patient information will instead be entered onto a paper report. Electronic emergency medical care reports should be adopted countrywide within the next few years.
Emergency medical care as part of a multidisciplinary team
A care needs assessment or a follow-up plan drawn up by an emergency nurse may call for contacting an on-call doctor or another or another expert in a medical or non-medical field, such as a social worker. The collaboration between emergency medical services and other health care modalities seeks to provide the patient with the best care possible in the right place at the right time.
To effectively render care to an emergency patient, the receiving hospital often needs to enact special arrangements even before the patient arrives at the hospital. To ensure the continuity of treatment, the emergency nurse will inform the hospital nurse about the status of the patient as well as the estimated time of arrival of the EMS unit. This way, hospital staff are able to properly prepare to receive and treat the patient.