In 2003, the need for a system to track and manage patient status and location was identified by Boston Emergency Medical Services (Boston EMS) and the Conference of Boston Teaching Hospitals. After consultation with EMS (municipal, fire based, and private), hospital, local and state public health and emergency management stakeholders, a core group from Boston EMS and Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) developed guidelines for a Metro Boston Patient Tracking System. The goal was to provide a system to reunite family members and serve as a tool for managing short term/high impact mass casualty incidents and protracted disease outbreaks.
Since 2004, BPHC Communicable Disease Control Division (CDC) has effectively managed several mass prophylaxis clinics in response to infectious disease outbreaks. However patient data was largely collected on paper based forms, limiting the availability of real-time clinic data to incident command. To address these challenges BPHC CDC began meeting with Boston EMS to define the business processes and information needs during public health emergencies.
Objective
To describe the electronic patient tracking system configured by Boston EMS and the BPHC CDC to address information needs during public health emergencies.