Wireless System Reduces Patient Triage Time In Mass Casualty Incidents To 10 Seconds

By Intermec Technologies Corporation

With the new system, triage time has been cut to 10 seconds-per-patient with patient data immediately visible to all incident command, including the staff at the hospital. As soon as a patient is ready, they can be moved from “treatment” to “transport” with no delay while waiting for information to be literally run between areas. The system eliminates the need for runners and radio communications, and most importantly, it improves patient care by dramatically reducing the time needed to communicate vital information.

“The advantage of using mobile computers is the trauma center knows exactly what they have as soon as the triage officer knows,” said SFD Lt. Jon Olson. “What happened in the past is that we’ve had to radio or phone them and tell them what we have, which is slower and more prone to error. And it doesn’t give the people at the trauma center the ability to support the other hospitals or the person on scene.