The Trauma App Blog Series
“Inside The Emergency Room” with Joanne Richardson
Joanne Richardson is the Major Trauma Coordinator at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, who went live with the app in July 2023.
We believe digital innovation and better data can transform healthcare. That’s why we created the Trauma App in collaboration with Scotland’s most advanced emergency care clinicians.
The app has been designed and deployed for Major Trauma clinicians in Emergency Medicine, to digitally document patient care.
In this series we’re interviewing clinicians using the Trauma App in their Emergency Department, finding out the reality of frontline medical care and the difference that digital innovation makes.
– Tom Montgomery
Head of Operations, Trauma App, Daysix
Joannes insights:
The best thing about your job is?
Personally, seeing our children and families ‘get back to normal’ is huge for me. Supporting our families through some of the most difficult days is an honour and a privilege.
What keeps you going?
Being able to influence how the children and their families are cared for in our trust and seeing the improvements in care provision that I have been involved in is great.
What’s the one thing you know will make a difference in your job?
Better communication and documentation.
How did you come across the Trauma App? What made you consider it as a solution?
We needed a digital solution for our trauma documentation and a colleague and I started to talk about building our own app. A chance discussion in an education group that she was in brought the app to our attention. We knew as soon as we saw it that it was exactly what we were looking for.
What feature do you like the most?
Just 1?! Has to be an actual observation chart in NEWS/PEWS format so that we can see trends. Although, I also love that we were able to influence getting safeguarding questions added so that also brings me joy.
What is it like using The Trauma App during a case?
It’s clear, easy and quick. The observation charts mean that staff can see trends in observations which is invaluable. While the patient is in scan, the team back in ED can still see ongoing observations that are being entered into the app. All the reports look the same so you know where to go to get the information and all of the information is in one place.
What was your biggest challenge when seeking to implement the Trauma App into your Scribing practice?
Getting the initial buy in. We had no issues getting buy-in from our trained staff, but we did struggle with our Health Care Assistants (HCA). Unfortunately, we traditionally used our HCA’s and students to scribe for us which therefore was a challenge. We have now changed this practice and as such have seen huge improvements. As soon as staff can see how easy it is to use and how well it works, they are usually hooked!
Alder Hey has a reputation of having an appetite for innovative digital solutions, what do you think it is especially about the culture/team that feeds this?
We have a good number of consultants who are proactive and innovative and I think this then promotes a general culture which promotes innovation.
What are your hopes for the future of healthcare?
I think it would be great to see proactive use of technology to improve services rather than just to fix problems when they happen. Technology is great to help fix problems, but I feels like we should be working with the technology to make things better rather than looking for problems we can fix.
About the Trauma App
The Trauma App is the digital data capture solution for documenting Major Trauma care. From Standby to Discharge, following ATLS protocol, every app interaction is captured in real-time, providing a complete record of events.
With the app, clinicians can document more data, faster, with better accuracy, producing a comprehensive digital report uploaded into the hospital’s EPR system.
Powerful dashboard data-output enables clinical care review and increases the quality and efficiency of national reporting requirements.
Want to use the Trauma App? – chat with us – hello@thetraumaapp.com
