PSRN and Hospital Patches

[thecanadiangod]

Are Hospital patches being done in the clear on the new system?

 

[exkalibur]

Are Hospital patches being done in the clear on the new system?

I highly doubt it, if they are going through the trouble of encrypting the dispatch channels, I can't imagine the patch channels would be in the clear.

 

[mikewazowski]

They'll be encrypted.

 

[Forts]

Yes, from observing testing and what's happening in Windsor/Essex they are encrypted.

 

[gary123]

I believe that the patches were one of the overriding reasons for justifying encryption. There is a consistent rumor that EMS may want to pass additional info directly to the hospital so that patient history may be available upon arrival.

 

[w3rwn]

I believe that the patches were one of the overriding reasons for justifying encryption. There is a consistent rumor that EMS may want to pass additional info directly to the hospital so that patient history may be available upon arrival.

Yep, they are worried that the Patches on clear radio transmission are an unauthorized disclosure of health information and are not under PHIPA compliant. And once you spend the money to encrypt patches via radio, you can encrypt everything at virtually no additional cost.

Encrypting patches (and all MOH radio) would allow Paramedics to pass the patients name, DOB and/or health card number to the hospital.
The hospital could then pull up the patients Electronic Health Record (EHR) on EPIC, and look at all the patient's past history, and provide verbal direction to the Paramedics about medical intervention enroute to hospital. It also allows hospital staff to prepare, look at past labs, and be ready to go when the patient arrives.

In Ontario the health privacy legislation is PHIPA and you can read about it here:

Your health privacy rights in Ontario

Ontario’s health privacy legislation, the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA), establishes a

www.ipc.on.ca

 

[Gymbag]

Yep, they are worried that the Patches on clear radio transmission are an unauthorized disclosure of health information and are not under PHIPA compliant. And once you spend the money to encrypt patches via radio, you can encrypt everything at virtually no additional cost.

Encrypting patches (and all MOH radio) would allow Paramedics to pass the patients name, DOB and/or health card number to the hospital.
The hospital could then pull up the patients Electronic Health Record (EHR) on EPIC, and look at all the patient's past history, and provide verbal direction to the Paramedics about medical intervention enroute to hospital. It also allows hospital staff to prepare, look at past labs, and be ready to go when the patient arrives.

In Ontario the health privacy legislation is PHIPA and you can read about it here:

https://www.ipc.on.ca/health-indivi...t/your-health-privacy-rights-in-ontario/[/URL

Most of the patches are to the local hospitals where there is no directions given to the paramedics as it has to be an RN who answers the patch phone. Any “directions” are given by base hospital doctors over cellphones. Ontario isn’t like the tv show Emergency where Dr. Brackitt is giving Johnnie and Roy information on medications for their patients.

 

[w3rwn]

This might be helpful in understanding exactly what Paramedics do on a Patch.
It's from Ontario "Advanced Life Support Patient Care Standards", Version 5.4, February 9 2024

Paramedic practice documents

Find the latest, approved standards for patient care, documentation, safety, equipment requirements and transportation.

www.ontario.ca

 

[thecanadiangod]

Yep, they are worried that the Patches on clear radio transmission are an unauthorized disclosure of health information and are not under PHIPA compliant. And once you spend the money to encrypt patches via radio, you can encrypt everything at virtually no additional cost.

Encrypting patches (and all MOH radio) would allow Paramedics to pass the patients name, DOB and/or health card number to the hospital.
The hospital could then pull up the patients Electronic Health Record (EHR) on EPIC, and look at all the patient's past history, and provide verbal direction to the Paramedics about medical intervention enroute to hospital. It also allows hospital staff to prepare, look at past labs, and be ready to go when the patient arrives.

In Ontario the health privacy legislation is PHIPA and you can read about it here:

Your health privacy rights in Ontario

Ontario’s health privacy legislation, the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA), establishes a

www.ipc.on.ca

A simple cell phone call would solve that issue.

 

[Forts]

Grabbing the radio is much easier though when you're running a code on a patient.

 

[w3rwn]

Grabbing the radio is much easier though when you're running a code on a patient.

And it is recorded by the CACC so they have a legal log of what occurred, who said what etc.

 

[gary123]

Also one less piece of hardware to be carrying.

Trying to hold on to a cell phone while extraditing a patient from a crash scene required both hands. A cell phone would require stopping grabbing the phone, selecting the number, waiting for an answer, Id yourself and then continuing with the patch. At the end you have to put the phone away. With a radio the mic is right there and the patch is already in place avoiding answer times and ID times. Sometimes seconds count.

This has been researched and tested numerous times by many many services. If it was not true then everyone would be using cellphones and radio would be dead.

 

[OntFF221]

The only time our paramedics would goto the cellphone was to contact the medical director for a TOR without transport... Everything else was done over the air; partly for convenience, partly so there was a recording of it.

 

[Muxlow]

This is how the hospital patch looks like from DSD and Unitrunker