How to use an academic EHR/Run Report in EMT and Paramedic programs

Written by

ChartFlow Publishing

Date published

Sep 5, 2024

Modern day EMTs and Paramedics always carry two things into a call: their med bag and their tablet. Are your students ready to use both?

We talk to a lot of Nursing and Allied Health schools who want to incorporate EHRs into their simulation and skills labs. However, that trend hasn’t fully taken over EMS training yet. Considering charting is the best legal protection an EMS provider has against lawsuits, we think it’s about time to see Run Reports making their way into every skills lab.

Here’s an example of how you can do that:

If you run a small EMT-B program and use students as your patients during in-class skills practice, that’s great! Have each of those practicing students open up their phones to access ChartFlow (or whatever EHR you have access to with pre-hospital charting) and enter the patient’s SAMPLE history including the standard OPQRST, vital signs, and any other diagnostic information obtained on the call.

For paramedic programs, a significant portion of their charting will revolve around interventions. Which ones did they do, which were successful, and what meds did they give? Making sure students complete accurate documentation is only the beginning. Giving them a way to prioritze tasks is a foundational skill in the iPad world.

For example, if you’re dealing with someone who has moderate abdominal pain, it makes sense to be entering pertinent medical history on the tablet as soon as they start up a conversation. However, if you enter a scene where the only bystander is performing active CPR on an unresponsive patient, the charting may have to wait for a minute. Figuring out workflow may seem easy, but it can be overwhelming to the new paramedic. That’s why we suggest incorporating every part of the job into you skills practice.

All of this is easy with ChartFlow! We have pre-built patient activities for EMS programs, as well as pre- and post- hospital charting if you have advanced paramedic students who will be practicing in a hospital setting.