COVID-19 Pandemic Operations Reference

Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this page was created as a resource to keep system administrators and stakeholders aware of updates and tools that are available.

* ImageTrend Collaborate™ Influenza-Like-Illness inclusion criteria from provider impressions or symptoms: acute bronchitis, common cold, COVID-19, influenza, pneumonia, SARS, or at least 2 impressions/symptoms from 2 different categories of fever, respiratory symptoms, or other cold symptoms.

** References:

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/index.htm

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#ed-visits

Updated: November 14, 2022

NEMSIS: EMS COVID Resource Reporting Tool

From the NEMSIS TAC Team

Updated August 17, 2020

To all Emergency Services Agencies,

Emergency Services Agencies across the nation require a standardized mechanism to communicate the urgent need of resources during the COVID pandemic, at both the State and National levels.

The NHTSA Office of EMS has designed a reporting tool to provide you with a consistent and immediate way to report personnel shortages, and PPE needs or “stress” your agency is experiencing due to the COVID outbreak and the impending Influenza season. This tool does not supersede your participation with emergency management, public health, or health care coalitions. It does not replace normal supply ordering or reporting procedures.

It takes less than 5 minutes for you to communicate current resource status and unmet requirements to State and Federal COVID healthcare leaders.

Click here to access the COVID Resource Reporting Tool and complete the form each week, preferably Monday. Additional instructions on the COVID Resource Reporting Tool are included in the attached document and available on a YouTube video here.

Prehospital healthcare continues to be the “front-line” defense for the identification, management and distribution of healthcare for patients with COVID-like symptoms. Your participation in the EMS COVID Resource Reporting Tool provides a guarantee that your local agency’s resource status is understood by State and National EMS leadership, and that your resource needs are being prioritized.

For questions regarding this process, please contact nemsis@hsc.utah.edu.

Thank you,
The NEMSIS TAC Team
nemsis@hsc.utah.edu

DOCUMENTATION: How To Capture Your Data

Best Practices for Documentation

Updated March 16, 2020

While ICD-10 codes do exist for coronaviruses generally (not specifically for COVID-19), most prehospital providers will have insufficient information at the time of care to know that a patient has or will test positive for COVID-19.  As such, the recommendations from the CDC are to document the patient as having “Influenza Like Illness (ILI),” Respiratory Issues or Fever.

A very important point to emphasize at this time is not only thorough documentation, but utilizing actual fields instead of free-text fields, like the narrative.  As health officials, hospitals, State EMS offices, and EMS agency administrators begin to run reports and analyze the data within EMS repositories, it is important that they are able to query distinct data elements instead of blocks of text.

In addition to patient care, documenting complete crew member information (including PPE utilized), disposition of the patient (transported or refusal), and good contact information for the patient (in case it is necessary to contact the patient later) are all considered good practice.

Available Software Resources

Updated March 23, 2020

»  Elite Coronavirus  (2019-nCoV) Screening Worksheet was introduced January 29, 2020 in the early stages of the outbreak. It is available for download in The Library.

»  Facility Alerting add-on feature for Elite   allows EMS providers to alert facilities or incoming patients prior to posting the incident. The alert sends an unencrypted email, which includes patient data selected by your system or agency. It can be configured to send vitals related to possible COVID-19 (including supplemental questions from the screening worksheet). The Facility Alerting feature is an add-on to your Elite system.

Relevant Fields/Values

Updated April 23, 2020

ImageTrend has prepared separate Fire and EMS Data Resouce sheets for download:

Guidance and Remindersfor NFIRS Special Study ID 9244, COVID-19 Discovery

Updated May 4, 2020

Download a copy of the letter from the NFIRS Support Center:

REPORTING: How You Can View Your Data

Continuum® Domains

Updated March 17, 2020

»  Continuum® COVID-19 Indicators Domain was released starting March 11, 2020. This domain includes the following topics:

  • Overview (see below)
  • High fever (100.4° F and higher)
  • Influenza-like illness (ILI)
  • Respiratory
  • Travel

Two new COVID-19 map layers are available for all domains in the EMS Incidents dataset:

  • Active Incidents
  • Deaths

With the 20.03.02 release starting 3/18/2020, a new Overview topic is now available within the COVID-19 domain. This new topic will display all incidents that would appear in any of the other topics for the COVID-19 domain (e.g., all incidents qualified as a potential travel-related disease or high fever or influenza-like illness). Additionally, the following fields are now available as filters for all domains and topics in the EMS dataset (e.g., the Clinical, Public Health, EMS Board Report and other domains listed under the EMS Incidents header):

  • Incident EMD Card Number (eDispatch.03)
  • Incident Initial CAD Dispatch Code (itDispatch.004)
  • Incident Final CAD Dispatch Code (itDispatch.005)
  • Exposure Suspected EMS Work Related Exposure Injury Or Death (eOther.05)
  • Exposure Suspected EMS Work Related Exposure Injury Or Death Code (eOther.05)
  • Exposure Suspected EMS Work Related Exposure Injury Or Death Description And Code (eOther.05)
  • Exposure Type Of Work Related Injury Death Or Suspected Exposure And Codes List (eOther. 06)
  • Exposure Type Other (itOther.09)

Continuum® Monitors

Updated March 17, 2020

Six new pre-created COVID-19 monitors are now available for your use, contained within the COVID-19 folder:

  • Patient “High Fever” Temperature Reported: Looks for high temperatures, defined as 100.4 F or greater.
  • Possible Travel-Related Illness: Looks for possible travel-related illnesses.
  • Influenza-Like Illness (ILI): Looks for an acute respiratory infection with a measured fever greater or equal to 100.4, and cough with onset within the last 10 days.
  • Suspected Pneumonia: Looks for suspected pneumonia incidents.
  • Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) in Elderly Residential Settings: Looks for An acute respiratory infection with a measured fever greater or equal to 100.4, and cough with onset within the last 10 days.
  • Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) in School Settings: Looks for an acute respiratory infection with a measured fever greater or equal to 100.4, and cough with onset within the last 10 days.

With the 20.03.02 release, a new COVID-19 Indicator within Patient Narrative monitor is now available. When subscribed to, this monitor will activate when an EMS incident is entered with content such as “COVID” or “Corona”
within the narrative (eNarrative.01) field.

Report Writer Packaged Reports

Updated April 6, 2020

Select a PDF file below to download:

INTEROPERABILITY: How To Exchange This Data Between Care Providers

Health Information Exchange

Updated March 17, 2020

ImageTrend’s Health Information Hub can facilitate the data exchange between EMS services and hospital staff, both pre-arrival and/or post-arrival. Using simple methods such as Faxing or Direct Messaging that hospital systems can receive already with little configuration, to more advanced data exchange using HL7 messages. EMS service can send a copy of the ePCR report including the COVID-19 Prehospital Worksheet to hospital systems using any of these methods.

Resource Bridge

Updated April 2, 2020

Bed Availability – We have been guiding our users to add additional bed and equipment types, specifically around AIIR/Negative Pressure rooms, Isolation rooms and ventilators. This additional information is then available via the Availability Status screen to aggregate data for dispatch, resource hospitals, and region and state staff.

Diversion/Bypass Status within Elite – For those areas that have both Resource Bridge and Elite, remember that you can enable a connection between systems that allow hospital diversion status to show directly within Elite Field.

This gives EMS crew important hospital diversion information that they can use to choose the more appropriate hospital to transport patients. Please let us know if you need guidance in enabling or configuring this features.

Incoming Patient Alerts – If you have Hospital Hub integrated with Elite, use alerts to be notified when a suspected COVID-19 patient is heading towards your hospital. Alerts can be audible and visual to get your attention and give you more time to prepare for the patient. When the incoming patient’s primary impression indicates a suspected COVID-19 patient, the alert displays in red, making it easier to pick out across a busy emergency room.

Patient Registry

Updated March 31, 2020

Patient Registry has released the new ICD-10 code for tracking positive COVID-19 cases (U07.1) and is prepared to add additional data points that would assist with the tracking and reporting of COVID-19. Through the integration between Patient Registry and Elite™, an official diagnosis can be sent to providers who can view the outcome in Elite of the patients they treated pre-hospital. This additional data source can assist in identifying trends as a part of the CQI process, and in the creation of provider education and community outreach.

LICENSE MANAGEMENT

Updated March 24, 2020

ImageTrend has been working with State and National partners related to extended deadlines for licensing recertifications. Here are some important details.

National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians (NREMT)

Updated March 31, 2020

The National Registry has extended the current recertification deadline from March 31, 2020 to June 30, 2020. Please see the link below for their COVID-19 response:
https://www.nremt.org/rwd/public/document/covid-19

National Registry Board Approves Provisional Certification
Provisional Registration status will be automatically assigned to any candidate that (1) completes an educational program at the EMR, EMT, AEMT or Paramedic level and (2) successfully passes the National Registry’s cognitive examination. The requirement for completing the psychomotor examination is deferred for the duration of the national emergency or until psychomotor examinations can be safely reinstated in the United States. (provisional FAQ)

State and County Licensing Systems

Updated March 24, 2020

Some State license boards have extended their current renewal periods. We have been guiding them on how to configure their systems to allow for extended time period.

  • Email Notifications – Most of our State/County EMS administrators use the broadcast email feature to communicate the latest information to EMS providers.
  • Public Portal – Visit the public portal for up to date information. Some States or counties (not all) use the Public Portal to instruct the latest licensing process.
  • Application Form – Some States also created an application form for EMS agencies to designate the Infection Control position with contact information for emergency planning.

We have also received several inquiries about how Elite logins or the ability to document incidents will be effected by extended expired licenses dates.  An administrator can setup a scheduled task and trigger to bulk extend upcoming expiration dates and update certification status. However, because many EMS offices are already preoccupied with other COVID19 activities and end of March expiration date is approaching, our team has been assisting EMS offices by running a one-time manual script to bulk update the expiration dates in the License Management database via support tickets. If the site is configured to sync to Elite, the latest certification data will be pushed to Elite and those EMS providers will not be expired/logged out from Elite. For assistance with a scripted update, please visit support.

Webinar

CrewCare was originally created for first responders. We recognize the benefits the free app would have for other professions, so we have extended the technology to related emergency and health fields, including dispatch, hospital care providers, nurses and physicians. Sign up is confidential and only takes a few minutes to complete and you will be on your way to using this free resource.

As new needs arise, ImageTrend continues to make updates to the app. In light of the recent pandemic, CrewCare was recently updated to include questions in the Life Tile specifically related to the impact of COVID-19. This gives users a way to anonymously share their stressors and experience related to COVID-19.

Download CrewCare for your device:

 

Download on the App Store

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Get it on Google Play

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GET IN TOUCH: Contacting ImageTrend

ImageTrend Client Support

Create a Ticket

1-888-730-3255

Video Resources

Elite

See how the special study question related to COVID-19 can be added to the incident form.

See how easy it is to set up and use this add-on feature in ImageTrend Elite. Notify receiving facilities of inbound patients before the ePCR is submitted with just a push of a button.

View a quick introduction to the packaged reports available in Report Writer related to COVID-19.

Continuum

Follow along as ImageTrend Continuum® Product Manager Neil Olson shows some highlights of the new COVID-19 Domain and related updates to Continuum.

Hospital Hub

View a demostration of the high-visibility alert that will help your ED be prepared for an incoming suspected COVID-19 paitent.

Learn how incidents with suspected COVID-19 as a primary impression can be sent to Hospital Hub with a high-visibility notification for the receiving ED.

Resource Bridge

See how the hospital availability can be updated in Resource Bridge at a system level.

Learn new ways to track COVID-19 resources in Resource Bridge.

View a quick introduction to the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) import that was added to Resource Bridge and Hospital Hub. You will also learn about the corresponding report that was added to Report Writer.

Patient Registry

Learn how to access COVID-19 resources from directly within ImageTrend Patient Registry.

View a demostration on how the new U07.1 ICD-10 code can easily be added to the record in ImageTrend Patient Registry.

Learn about the 22 new reports related to COVID-19 for use within Patient Registry.

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