Going the Full Circle: Upgrading the Patient Field Chart and Tag for Electronic Mass Casualty Incidents Solutions in Romania

Abstract

Abstract Objective: Mass casualty incidents and disasters require functional and efficient patient data management systems, as well as smart interconnections with patient tracking applications. Various initiatives developed and tested patient field charts for large-scale events but there is no one definite general format accepted. The current research proposes an upgraded model of the official patient field chart issued by the Romanian Department for Emergency Situations in 2015 to be used for large-scale events. Measures: An upgraded model is created after a thorough content analysis, physical analysis, design upgrade and optimization process. Differences between the official and the upgraded model are measured and compared, and statistical computations are carried out. Results: The main distinctive features of the patient field chart are dynamic triage, unique code identification, QR visual codes, wireless tags and irreversible clear contamination status highlighting. The upgrade process results in almost doubling the available active area without the need to change the document size format of the product. Visual elements and features are included to optimize operation workflow. Conclusions: The upgraded model offers a variety of improvements for both the overall rescue effort as well as the end user of the product. It allows for previously unavailable features like unlimited dynamic triage and enables the use of electronic management solutions.