North Florida Regional Medical Center Connecting Smartphone users to ER Wait Times
January 6, 2010, Gainesville, FL – North Florida Regional Medical Center (NFRMC) is using smartphone technology to give patients in North Central Florida immediate access to its ER Wait Times on iTriage® -- a mobile acute care decision tool developed by Healthagen®. The new Smartphone application is the latest effort by the hospital and parent company Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) to connect patients with current wait times in Emergency.
Area Smartphone users can download iTriage from the app store for the iphone® and from the market for Android™ or access iTriage at www.iTriageHealth.com. Healthagen developed the technology. It empowers consumers to evaluate symptoms, learn about the possible causes, find appropriate locations for treatment and get quality information based on the type of facility. North Florida Regional Medical Center is the first hospital in the Gainesville area to list ER wait times on the iTriage application.
“We are constantly searching for ways to enhance the quality of the patient experience at North Florida Regional Medical Center,” says Gary Gillette, MD, Medical Director of the Emergency Department at NFRMC. “Empowering our patients to connect with wait times they can expect for emergency care is all part of this overall commitment to the patient experience.”
Prior to rolling out the new Smartphone application, average ER wait times were made available by NFRMC and its parent company, Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) on the websites of NFRMC and other HCA hospitals. In addition, those average wait times were also made available via SMS messages on mobile phones. Patients may continue to log onto www.NFRMC.com to see average wait times and also continue to connect via their mobile phones by texting ‘ER’ to phone number '23000’ and entering their zip codes.
“By adopting this new wave of technology, North Florida Regional Medical Center becomes known as a mobile healthcare solutions leader and also creates transparency around its emergency department wait times,” says Peter Hudson, M.D., CEO, Healthagen.
Board certified emergency physicians and qualified staff combined with the best practices and the latest technology make up the Emergency Eepartment at NFRMC. The hospital’s strong focus on enhancing care and improving ER processes has dramatically reduced wait times.
iPhone is a registered trademark of Apple Inc.
Android is a trademark of Google®
About North Florida Regional Medical Center:
North Florida Regional is a 325-bed, full-service medical and surgical acute care center serving 14 counties and offering comprehensive cardiovascular care, oncology, orthopedics, neurosciences, weight loss surgery and treatment, women’s health and wound therapy, among other services. A proven leader, North Florida Regional Medical Center is fully accredited and is certified as a Primary Stroke Center by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organization. North Florida Regional Medical Center is a member of Hospital Corporation of America (HCA). Based in Nashville, Tennessee, HCA remains the nation’s leading provider of healthcare services, composed of locally managed facilities that include approximately 166 hospitals and 112 outpatient centers in 20 states and England.
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