Delivering lab results to ED physicians via their smartphones can help discharge patients from the emergency department faster, data shows.
The study, published online inAnnals of Emergency Medicine, found that chest pain patients in the ED whose attending emergency physicians received lab results delivered directly to their smartphones spent about 26 minutes less waiting to be discharged than patients whose lab results were delivered to the electronic patient record on the hospital computer system.
"For many patients, waiting for lab results that determine if they stay in the hospital or go home is the hardest part of the ER visit," study author Aikta Verma, MD, MHSc, of the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada, said in a statement.
"Physicians who received troponin results on their smartphones made the decision to discharge their patients with chest pain a median of 26 minutes faster than physicians without troponin push-alert notifications."
Patients who come to the ED with chest pain have blood drawn to test for troponin levels, which, if elevated, indicate a heart attack. Physicians participating in the study were randomized to either receive push alerts directly on their smartphones about their patients' troponin lab tests or not receive them.
The authors wrote that they "retrospectively identified patients treated by participating physicians during the study period who were discharged from the ED with chest pain."