T-System provides disaster-oriented charting templates at no cost to Haiti relief medical staff

Jan 19 2010

As medical personnel from the United States and other countries rush to Haiti to provide medical care following last week's devastating earthquake, Dallas-based T-System, Inc., the leading provider of emergency department documentation solutions, is providing disaster-oriented charting templates at no cost to any medical staff providing emergency care in Haiti. These templates will help medical volunteers quickly assess and document patients with trauma or other medical conditions.

In addition, T-System has made arrangements to provide bilingual triage forms to help further reduce the treatment time required for each patient, while minimizing language challenges.

Documents are available at www.tsystem.com/haiti and are free of charge for any medical providers giving care in Haiti, including U.S. military medical providers.  Free documentation templates from T-System include: Adult Trauma, Adult Medical, Pediatric Trauma, Pediatric Medical, and Trauma Progress Notes.

Tom Ward, MD, Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President for T-System, said the templates will help the overworked medical providers volunteering in Haiti to keep accurate medical records quickly and easily for ongoing treatment. "As volunteer doctors and nurses are working feverishly to treat the thousands of injured, any kind of consistent documentation will be sporadic, if not non-existent," said Dr. Ward. "Our templates are proven to improve care and streamline the treatment process. Our hope is that as many medical personnel as possible take advantage of these templates to help in their heroic efforts in Haiti."

In addition to the T-System templates, T-System is providing bilingual triage forms developed by Language Line and BiMedical. Two triage forms are available: trauma and illness. Each form is written in French and English, allowing patients or non-medical staff to complete the yes/no questionnaire. Forms are used to collect information about current symptoms, as well as past medical history. Through a special licensing agreement with BiMedical, T-System is donating the triage questionnaires, free of charge.

According to Suzette Thorby, RN, Chief Nursing Officer and Senior Vice President for T-System, the bilingual triage forms should help to significantly expedite the treatment of the injured and sick in Haiti. "Aside from the sheer magnitude of the situation, a major obstacle in the delivery of care will be the language barriers clinicians will encounter," said Ms. Wier. "These documents will help clinicians to better understand the complaint and deliver care faster. In fact, a colleague of mine has used these forms in past mission trips and told me that he can treat three patients in the time it would take to treat one just by using these forms."

In addition to providing these invaluable clinical tools free of charge, T-System and its employees have made a cash donation of $10,000 in support of relief efforts.