Electronic PCR Printing

[PeteBlair]

This question is for those who use electronic PCRs and print out the PCRs at the hospital.

What printer (Brand and Model) do you use, and, if you had your choice, would you use a different printer?

Is your printer in the "truck," or is it in the hospital itself?

What printer-related problems have you encountered?

Thanks!

 

[wolfwyndd]

We don't carry a printer on the rig with us. Every hospital in the area has a bluetooth campatible printer that we use. The biggest printer related issue we've had, and still have, is that 1/2 the time when we plug the bluetooth adapter into the laptop itself it'll blue screen the laptop. 1/2 the time when it blue screens we loose 1/2 the information we've already put into the PC. 1/2 of that time we loose ALL the information we have put in and have the start the whole freakin' thing all over again.

 

[mikie]

Our PCRs are electronic. We have a toughbook in the truck and usually dont' start the reports till we've transfered pt to ER and is out of our hands. At our ERs there is an EMT room (two of which have free fountain soda!) and that's usually where we do our reports then they have printers. though sometimes they might not have the cable (USB) so we have our own in the truck...

Two of the printers are laser on is an HP deskjet.

Also if we dont' have time we can fill out the report on either the laptop or a desktop @ the station.

Either way- all of the printers are SLOW. We all agree that printing takes the longest and is the hardest part!

We print 2 copies- one for us and one for the patient. If we fill otu the report at the station, we fax a copy.

So if I had a choice...I say skip printing and let everything go digital!

 

[Bosco578]

Our PCRs are electronic. We have a toughbook in the truck and usually dont' start the reports till we've transfered pt to ER and is out of our hands. At our ERs there is an EMT room (two of which have free fountain soda!) and that's usually where we do our reports then they have printers. though sometimes they might not have the cable (USB) so we have our own in the truck...

Two of the printers are laser on is an HP deskjet.

Also if we dont' have time we can fill out the report on either the laptop or a desktop @ the station.

Either way- all of the printers are SLOW. We all agree that printing takes the longest and is the hardest part!

We print 2 copies- one for us and one for the patient. If we fill otu the report at the station, we fax a copy.

So if I had a choice...I say skip printing and let everything go digital!

That's pretty much how it is for our Dept. (minus free soda). It actually prints fairly quick for us,however the format is not the best. Once we finalize the PCR it is sent to the sups and they review it. Only one hard copy is printed and left with the hospital.

 

[Jon]

We don't print our charts. They are all electronically saved. Our billing signature sheets and other paperwork get scanned and added to the electronic PCR's.

Some of the programs have an option to allow the chart to be electronically sent to the hospital and included with the patient's medical record... everyone just has to agree that that is the right thing to do and make the IT end happen.

 

[Outbac1]

Charts are saved on the companies server in real time as we enter info. At the hosp. when we are done writing it we use a hosp. printer to print it off. It seems every hosp. has a different type of printer. So our IT people set up one or more desiginated printers at each hosp. for us to use. One in the ER and others on various floors we frequent. All we do is plug in the cable, (attached to the printer), pick the name of the printer we are using from a list and hit print. In seconds we have a copy.

Problems are usually with the laptop not the printer. I don't know who pays for the paper or ink, us or the hosp. In a pinch we can have our comm. center fax a copy to the hosp.

 

[daemonicusxx]

use toughbooks with LIFENET ems software. print with laserjets at the hospitals. also have a fax option, you have to be connected to the truck gateway, which sends the chart to the station fax, then to the hospital (if they dont have a printer)