Digital patient handover to hospitals

Purpose

1.1. Enables structured digital transfer of patient data from ambulance to hospital systems before arrival.
1.2. Reduces manual paperwork, increases speed and accuracy of patient handover.
1.3. Facilitates real-time triage, resource allocation, and better patient outcomes by automating data flows.
1.4. Ensures compliance with medical data privacy regulations via secure and monitored API connections.

Trigger Conditions

2.1. Ambulance crew initiates a handover from their ePCR (electronic patient care record) device.
2.2. Status change in dispatch system notes patient en route to hospital.
2.3. Medical device reaches a threshold (e.g., critical vital sign) during transport.
2.4. Real-time communication receives location geofence entry for hospital zone.

Platform Variants

3.1. Twilio Programmable Messaging
• Feature/Setting: Use API for automated SMS handover notification to coordinating hospital staff (POST /Messages).
3.2. SendGrid
• Feature/Setting: Use API to auto-email patient summary (POST /mail/send).
3.3. Google Sheets
• Feature/Setting: Use Sheets API to log handover data for audit (sheets.spreadsheets.values.append).
3.4. Microsoft Teams
• Feature/Setting: Use Incoming Webhook for alerting ER triage (Incoming Webhook URL).
3.5. Trello
• Feature/Setting: Create board card for incoming patient (POST /1/cards).
3.6. Salesforce Health Cloud
• Feature/Setting: Push handover data to patient record (POST /services/data/vXX.X/sobjects/Patient).
3.7. Epic (FHIR API)
• Feature/Setting: Use Patient and Encounter resources for digital handover (POST /Patient, /Encounter).
3.8. Cerner Millennium
• Feature/Setting: Integrate via FHIR for incoming patient (POST /Patient, /Encounter).
3.9. Slack
• Feature/Setting: Send channel alert on new handover (chat.postMessage).
3.10. AWS S3
• Feature/Setting: Store PDFs and structured records for retrieval (PutObject).
3.11. DocuSign
• Feature/Setting: Auto-generate handover signature request (Envelopes::create).
3.12. Zapier
• Feature/Setting: Webhook trigger to fan out handover data (Catch Hook).
3.13. ServiceNow
• Feature/Setting: Create incident record for patient arrival (POST /api/now/table/incident).
3.14. Azure Logic Apps
• Feature/Setting: Automate workflows between hospital systems (HTTP trigger/action).
3.15. Box
• Feature/Setting: Store handover forms securely (Files: Upload).
3.16. Redox
• Feature/Setting: Use PatientAdmin/NewPatient API to transmit handover.
3.17. Meditech Expanse
• Feature/Setting: API entry for pre-hospital notification (via FHIR or HL7 interface).
3.18. PagerDuty
• Feature/Setting: Trigger incident alerts based on patient acuity (Events API v2).
3.19. Google Chat
• Feature/Setting: Send chat message with summary (Spaces.messages.create).
3.20. IBM Watson Health
• Feature/Setting: Analyze text handover for clinical decision (POST /analyze).
3.21. Microsoft Outlook
• Feature/Setting: Schedule auto-calendar event for ER team (Graph API: createEvent).
3.22. Okta
• Feature/Setting: Verify paramedic identity with SSO before submitting
3.23. AirTable
• Feature/Setting: Store structured handover data per case (POST /v0/app.../Table).

Benefits

4.1. Minimizes errors and latency during EMT-to-hospital communication.
4.2. Accelerates ER prep and patient triage based on pre-arrival data.
4.3. Ensures secure, audit-ready transfer with full compliance.
4.4. Centralizes records and notifications across all stakeholders.
4.5. Frees up clinical resources for direct patient care by reducing manual data entry.