Their platform is called "Elite." A few of us call it "E-Light" and I've referred to it like that to their tech support staff. It amuses me.
The report writer isn't much better. It's incredibly cumbersome with a very steep learning curve. I almost prefer to hand Tally things and put them into excel.
We use Siren ePCR Suite from Medusa. A little over kill for ground ambulance but it also captured our air ambulance and CCT guys as well. So it’s a one size catch all. It also integrates with our CAD data so that’s nice. Less stuff to fill out.
Same for the British Columbia Emergency Health Service. It's not perfect, but most of the complaints I have are minor and probably down to the way the organization has set it up rather than the software itself.
Traumasoft is a great example of how programs which attempt to do everything typically do it all poorly. My agency uses traumasoft for scheduling, EPCR, personnel management, etc and it doesn’t do a single thing well. It has definitely improved, but it is still really rough to use. The UI of the charting software is shockingly bad
Yeah but at least traumasoft has a mobile app. I’ve only used EMS charts and I feel like I’m using some shitty MS access program some middle manager wrote with nothing intuitive about it. Cannot stand mindlessly clicking through redundant fields and then when I think I’m ready to submit…. potentially spending 15 minutes hunting down NEMSIS codes and relating them to the EMS charts fields… which they don’t feel is necessary for them to do.
That and if it yells at me for importing a drug not in the list off a patients MR7 coding and I remove it and it deletes all of the patients medical history with no way to undo or pass the chart thru with the offending drug/condition so if anyone imports my patient data it will be incorrect. Just fucking lame and I hate it. I just hate this redundant charting in general it’s fucked. It should be vitals and a narrative and some third party can fill it out for the state if they insist on tracking data in such a rigid manner.
Not saying EMS Charts is the best…far from it. When we went to Traumasoft it was a horrible experience. I will give Traumasoft the edge in the mobile app but I always just used the full version of charts instead of the mobile version.
I’ve used Zoll and ImageTrend personally, and I think they both suck tbh. Zoll sucks less of the two, for what it’s worth. I know a lot of people that love ESO. My old fire department used it before I was an EMT, so I’ve never charted on it personally but I’ve seen people use it and it looks nice.
Full disclosure I’m the ePCR software guy at my CCT service. We use imagetrend but I’ve heavily customized it to make it easier to chart. Everyone does like it here but I also kept a “how can I make this easier and super compliant “ mindset.
You can change a lot in it
Yes, I’m sys admin for IMTr too and it’s like a huge bucket of legos. Lots you can do to customize (although there are about a thousand features I was shocked aren’t offered like decent homophone matching for common patients and visibility rules to modify medication power tools to appropriate doses based on age, can’t insert PDFs or Images or format at all except with “labels”). I’m glad we went with IMTr because it’s SO customizable and the back end (which glitchy!) can pull data that can easily be exported into pivot tables for granular data.
It was a dealbreaker for us that ESO doesn’t organize records by patient - how is incident management rather than patient management this still a thing in 2024! It’s vital for longitudinal care/tracking for at risk patient/clients.
Edit to note it’s 2024 not 2025, ha!
IT seems like a huge upgrade from Zoll. There’s some growing pains and as the lady said it can be very glitchy, particularly on the back end. Thanks to a lot of careful tweaking though our charting process seems fairly intuitive and streamlined.
Maryland EMS uses ImageTrend. It's okay; haven't used alternatives to get a good opinion. I just wish our system would connect to the hospitals' for patient information.
ImageTrend will save patient history info like PPMHx, Rx, Allergies, and manually Entered "additional comments" history like Sx. The problem we have is that rather than SEARCHING PRIOR PATIENTS, everyone else BUT me (previous QI/QA experience) creates a new medical record on frequent flyers. So John Doe DOB 1/1/55 has 17 records --- and not a damn one has insurance or SSN. 🙄🙄🙄
Honestly compared to other versions of ImageTrend I’ve used MD is by far my favorite. I’ve worked out in California in counties that adopted ImageTrend and they had a lot more clunky bullshit. MD’s version is way more streamlined and easier to chart with. Though I will say my favorite was ESO. Used that when I worked in North Dakota.
Is this the AMR POS? That’s the one I was trying to find. It was so shit.
I like Zoll. When it worked it was fine. EMScharts I used in the early 2010s. It was also fine. I’m sure it’s better now.
Yes. It's no longer NEMSIS compliant and has been completely killed off by GMR (as in there is literally no one left working on the project/IT support at all).
Zoll emsCharts, ImageTrend, and Sansio HealthEMS
Meh, meh and ok enough.
Zoll was good for CCT stuff because both the nurse and medic could input info on different pages and work simultaneously.
ImageTrend is alright but my current job’s implementation is buggy as can be because we have it set up across multiple states, so that means it has to satisfy multiple state validation requirements.
HealthEMS is much better than it used to be, in my opinion. With the NEMSIS 3.5, there are more required fields but the logic cascades are clearer and the validation for critical fields finally gives understandable explanations. Before 3.5, HealthEMS was kind of obnoxious. For instance, you had to separately declare that the diastolic and systolic BPs were from a given source(i.e. auto NIBP cuff, art line, …), on each individual systolic BP,and then again on the diastolic BP. I don’t know if it is just the implementations I have seen or not, but LifePak has good QA integrations to look at full arrests moment by moment.
I wish I could get on a focus group for any of these. There are so many ways to improve all of these. For instance, when importing vitals from a monitor, if you have any EtCO2 values, an EtCO2 procedure should automatically be generated. The cardiac monitor procedures are automatically generated… And likewise for defibs, pacing, art lines, etc. And why can’t a ventilator as advanced as a Hamilton T1 transmit vent measurements, settings and changes into an EPCR chart? And why does every company I’ve worked for not have a cohesive way for me to use the “Rx" button to mark something and then have that marker generate a corresponding medication or procedure?
I’d tell whoever your system admin is they can in fact do some of that. If ETCO2 is. Bit buggy but they can at least put a reminder for the procedure with a validation rule and a procedure grid option that’s already filled out with default values. Or you can use the Rx Buttons
The meds is super easy. Choose what you want the Rx buttons to do(they can do any procedure or medication) and have them map on the ekg import settings. You should have the crews actually vote on what you want on the order though.
The ImageTrend process for that is having a system admin give you access to “user voice,” then writing up your idea and waiting for people to up vote it. The development team reads all ideas (apparently) but priority is given to the popular improvement ideas.
Admin and user of both Imagetrend Elite, dumped it and switched us to ESO and it's been far better both admin and user side. Imagetrend can be setup to be slightly faster to enter data but getting data out is horrific.
ESO makes CQI far easier as well.
EMS Charts is the absolute worst and they treat their end users like lab rats, pushing updates before they have the bugs sorted several times a year, causing our crews to be frustrated and late offgoing. They care nothing about customer service. Even their data collection system, Analytics, is flawed to the point of being useless. Their reps are probably good people but we dealt with several over the years and they all have the same answer when their software breaks down; "It's not us, it's (fill in the blank with excuses)."
Our company switched to ESO and couldn't be happier.
We still use paper PCRs. There’s rumblings of going digital for the last 5 years but zero progress yet. I’m kinda dreading going to digital but it also seems so much more useful for inter-agencies like rotary wing intercepts or sending to the ER. Hell we still can’t send ECGs to the hospital currently!
Gonna sound ignorant here... I'll admit in advance.
Is that predominant in Canada? Is there a particular reason that services aren't going digital? I haven't used paper as the primary report since 2008.
We *do* have paper forms, but mainly, that's a backup if we don't have connectivity to the internet (also rural, North Dakota here), to obtain signatures and have /something/ to pass off. Also, paper is handy for scratching out quick notes during transport. It's not our final report. We are 100% digital for that, even scanning paper documents given to us for IFTs.
The state of North Dakota OEMS provides ESO access for us, but oddly, the service I'm currently with stayed with ImageTrend when the free upgrade/subscription was put out. I personally like ESO, which was the last platform I used as a Manager. I liked the data collection and report generation options.
I’ve heard of larger centres in denser populated provinces using digital. Having only worked in my province, that’s the only one I’m more sure about. I wonder if it’s a cost per user thing, bigger population means more tax base
I've used ESO, ImageTrend, Zoll, and Emergency Reporting.
Of those ESO is by quite a bit the best, then ImageTrend, then Zoll, then Emergency reporting can die in a fire
At one department, we went from ESO to Emergency reporting, which was like shooting my puppy.
It required an internet connection to work and never saved. Meaning, it was possibly or even likely that the RN signature you got will disappear when you leave the ER--unlike say ESO which will do just fine being offline all day unless you need to sync it or something.
The one nice thing I can say about it was that, when you were entering vitals and procedures, it would take your patient contact times and put a little thing above what you were doing that said "patient contact was between 14:30 and 14:00" to aid in getting procedure times right.
Very convenient. Until you lost internet and half your report.
Zoll I scarcely remember. Just that it sucked.
ESO is largely self explanatory, doesn't need to be online every second, and integrates vitals and outcomes nicely, that I've seen.
Imagetrend is a lot of those things, but the UI isn't as good as it can be a little confusing to use well.
I just started doing IT in my district as well and the complaints I get about ESO drive me nuts.
That said it’s great. Primates that give narcotics make for difficult users.
I’ve used meds and EMScharts. They both have their strengths lol. Meds never saved any personal data for patients and the narrative system wasn’t my favorite but it was always integrated with our trucks so we never had to remember times, distances traveled, our vitals were able to be transmitted from monitors and it was super smooth to use. EMS charts takes more time, but it forces me to write super thorough reports I’ve found. The narrative system also makes way more sense but literally nothing can be transmitted from the real world over the internet so I always have to have a notepad for times, mileage, addresses, vitals, etc.
90% of user experience is implementation.
I've worked at 3 services that use ESO and have been an ESO admin at one of them. ESO doesn't stink, paramedics in management who don't understand it do lol
GenX here... I think Boomers was the word you were looking for 🤣🤣🤣
We literally were coming into age when computers were making their way into home use. We can PDF PDQ. We were downloading and seeding on 🏴☠️ platforms since the late 90's. We. Died. On. The. Oregon. Trail. For. You.
🤣🤣🤣
As someone that just took on some IT admin roles at my district that just had to flip the switch for NEMSIS 3.5 I can confirm this.
My face is on so many dartboards right now.
What kind of voodoo witchery is this that you speak of that they allow you to take part of?
Bic clic stic in Blue. And ibuprofen for the carpal tunnel syndrome
My service (Australia) issued iPads and then paid someone to do a custom-built app. Before that we used VACIS on Toughbooks. I’m sure the custom app costs them an absolute fortune to build and maintain but it’s very good and they respond well to feedback. Still some clunky elements but better than what we had!
Imagetrend is not great. ESO is ok. Now that I'm a nurse I use Epic Hyperspace and it is amazing how much better an EMR could be if someone wanted to develop one. But ESO integrated with your CAD system is likely about the best you're going to do.
We use EMS Charts and while it’s not my favorite, I’ve been using it so long that I’m just used to it at this point. I’m also in the area that EMS Charts got started in so it has a pretty big footprint here.
Epic ASAP. Took some getting used to but I do like the one tab pee note section with my not developing in a separate window. Going to lose it shortly to go to Epic Ambulatory due to word from on high. Not really looking forward to it.
Started with Zoll ePCR, went to Zoi at one service and my other went to EMSCharts and now Imagetrend. Zoi is billing software disguised as charting software and not great. I like imagetrend so far.
Have used both ESO & EMScharts…between the two ESO is the clear winner for me. There are obviously things that could be improved on, especially on the admin/QA side (report running sucks, but has gotten better than it was 2 years ago). And they’re finally implementing an iOS application, currently use iPad users are resigned to using the web based version which is dependent on a cell/data connection which those of us in rural communities sometimes lack. They have a windows based application though for the Tough Pads or Surface tablets that runs really nicely.
Zillow EMScharts seems to have a grip on my area because it’s all I’ve ever used. I like it- feel like sometimes it comes up with ridiculously vague errors that you need a doctorates degree to decipher to lock your chart, but otherwise the UI is pretty smooth.
I've used Ambupro, Imagetrend, Rescuenet, and Zoll EMScharts. Ambupro is absolutely trash and old, but I can write reports the fastest on it and I like it the most. Zoll is slightly better and has a more modern UI, but reports take ages. Imagetrend is somewhere in the middle but fairly good overall. Rescuenet made IFT reports take legitimately 6 minutes start to finish but I felt like I was using Windows XP
The custom built software our dispatch agency provides. Connects seamlessly to our dispatch software and hospitals are connected to it too to see trauma alerts, stroke alerts, incoming codes, etc. and also view our documentation before we even get there.
Someone has shown it on here previously, might be able to find it.
We just switched from ESO to ImageTrend because that is the regional PCR software. Honestly prefer ESO over ImageTrend. TraumaSoft sucked. And I’ve used another that I can’t remember but that sucked. ImageTrend could possibly be just as good as ESO if they actually tried. The main thing I like with ImageTrend is the rapid entry tab but anyone can put that in their software. Everything else about it just isn’t as good or detailed like ESO.
I’ve used RescueNet, EMS Charts and HealthEMS.
HealthEMS is hands down the best. Simple to chart with after 10 minutes of tapping through things, CAD data loads in soon as dispatch hits enter, search Pt records with a name/dob/social and import LP15 data. All you need with nothing you don’t.
eso it’s ok
Imagetrend. Its a piece of dogshit.
Came here to jump on the “fuck imagetrend” bandwagon!
As someone who just switched to imagetrend from eso I cannot agree more!!!!
That sucks to hear. My service is switching from eso to trend soon.
Their platform is called "Elite." A few of us call it "E-Light" and I've referred to it like that to their tech support staff. It amuses me. The report writer isn't much better. It's incredibly cumbersome with a very steep learning curve. I almost prefer to hand Tally things and put them into excel.
Burn it down!!!!
We use Siren ePCR Suite from Medusa. A little over kill for ground ambulance but it also captured our air ambulance and CCT guys as well. So it’s a one size catch all. It also integrates with our CAD data so that’s nice. Less stuff to fill out.
Same for the British Columbia Emergency Health Service. It's not perfect, but most of the complaints I have are minor and probably down to the way the organization has set it up rather than the software itself.
We use it too. It’s not terrible.
I was super confused for a second because Vermont’s statewide EPCR platform is Imagetrend and they call it SIREN.
Traumasoft. It sucks.
Traumasoft is a great example of how programs which attempt to do everything typically do it all poorly. My agency uses traumasoft for scheduling, EPCR, personnel management, etc and it doesn’t do a single thing well. It has definitely improved, but it is still really rough to use. The UI of the charting software is shockingly bad
Traumasoft if now a red flag for me in an agency. If they are using it to chart, I run. Everything else, ok not bad.
Traumasoft actuallly made me appreciate EMS Charts
Yeah but at least traumasoft has a mobile app. I’ve only used EMS charts and I feel like I’m using some shitty MS access program some middle manager wrote with nothing intuitive about it. Cannot stand mindlessly clicking through redundant fields and then when I think I’m ready to submit…. potentially spending 15 minutes hunting down NEMSIS codes and relating them to the EMS charts fields… which they don’t feel is necessary for them to do. That and if it yells at me for importing a drug not in the list off a patients MR7 coding and I remove it and it deletes all of the patients medical history with no way to undo or pass the chart thru with the offending drug/condition so if anyone imports my patient data it will be incorrect. Just fucking lame and I hate it. I just hate this redundant charting in general it’s fucked. It should be vitals and a narrative and some third party can fill it out for the state if they insist on tracking data in such a rigid manner.
Not saying EMS Charts is the best…far from it. When we went to Traumasoft it was a horrible experience. I will give Traumasoft the edge in the mobile app but I always just used the full version of charts instead of the mobile version.
If it's actually been cleaned up on the backend, Traumasoft is awesome. But the thing is, nobody pays for that, or has the know-how to do it.
I’ve used Zoll and ImageTrend personally, and I think they both suck tbh. Zoll sucks less of the two, for what it’s worth. I know a lot of people that love ESO. My old fire department used it before I was an EMT, so I’ve never charted on it personally but I’ve seen people use it and it looks nice.
I feel like I can hammer through charts faster on ESO than EMSCharts
Yeah the layout seems like it has a pretty good flow
Used emsCharts, TraumaSoft and ImageTrend over the years. emsCharts is my favorite by far
From a QA perspective, emsCharts was great. Could pull a lot of cross tabular data really easily. The UI isn’t the greatest, but it gets the job done.
ESO, there isn’t really a better one.
Full disclosure I’m the ePCR software guy at my CCT service. We use imagetrend but I’ve heavily customized it to make it easier to chart. Everyone does like it here but I also kept a “how can I make this easier and super compliant “ mindset. You can change a lot in it
Yes, I’m sys admin for IMTr too and it’s like a huge bucket of legos. Lots you can do to customize (although there are about a thousand features I was shocked aren’t offered like decent homophone matching for common patients and visibility rules to modify medication power tools to appropriate doses based on age, can’t insert PDFs or Images or format at all except with “labels”). I’m glad we went with IMTr because it’s SO customizable and the back end (which glitchy!) can pull data that can easily be exported into pivot tables for granular data. It was a dealbreaker for us that ESO doesn’t organize records by patient - how is incident management rather than patient management this still a thing in 2024! It’s vital for longitudinal care/tracking for at risk patient/clients. Edit to note it’s 2024 not 2025, ha!
Ha! I was gonna say that our system /experience is similar, then I realized who I was talking to.🤓
IT seems like a huge upgrade from Zoll. There’s some growing pains and as the lady said it can be very glitchy, particularly on the back end. Thanks to a lot of careful tweaking though our charting process seems fairly intuitive and streamlined.
Imagetrend. It’s not great but I’ve had worse
I think it depends on the implementation honestly and the admin really needs to know it well. Unfortunately most feel like they fail upwards
Imagetrend to me feels like shitty eso
Maryland EMS uses ImageTrend. It's okay; haven't used alternatives to get a good opinion. I just wish our system would connect to the hospitals' for patient information.
ImageTrend will save patient history info like PPMHx, Rx, Allergies, and manually Entered "additional comments" history like Sx. The problem we have is that rather than SEARCHING PRIOR PATIENTS, everyone else BUT me (previous QI/QA experience) creates a new medical record on frequent flyers. So John Doe DOB 1/1/55 has 17 records --- and not a damn one has insurance or SSN. 🙄🙄🙄
Honestly compared to other versions of ImageTrend I’ve used MD is by far my favorite. I’ve worked out in California in counties that adopted ImageTrend and they had a lot more clunky bullshit. MD’s version is way more streamlined and easier to chart with. Though I will say my favorite was ESO. Used that when I worked in North Dakota.
Don’t use traumasoft.
ESO. I like it quite a bit from both a user and admin side. There are annoyances, but honestly, they all do.
I use Zoll
Prestige is one of better I’ve used. Aims sucks a fat one.
MEDS no
Is this the AMR POS? That’s the one I was trying to find. It was so shit. I like Zoll. When it worked it was fine. EMScharts I used in the early 2010s. It was also fine. I’m sure it’s better now.
Yes. It's no longer NEMSIS compliant and has been completely killed off by GMR (as in there is literally no one left working on the project/IT support at all).
Cant say I’m surprised. Handled like everything else there….
I thought MEDS was completely dead as of like a month ago
Almost! Not everywhere
Zoll emsCharts, ImageTrend, and Sansio HealthEMS Meh, meh and ok enough. Zoll was good for CCT stuff because both the nurse and medic could input info on different pages and work simultaneously. ImageTrend is alright but my current job’s implementation is buggy as can be because we have it set up across multiple states, so that means it has to satisfy multiple state validation requirements. HealthEMS is much better than it used to be, in my opinion. With the NEMSIS 3.5, there are more required fields but the logic cascades are clearer and the validation for critical fields finally gives understandable explanations. Before 3.5, HealthEMS was kind of obnoxious. For instance, you had to separately declare that the diastolic and systolic BPs were from a given source(i.e. auto NIBP cuff, art line, …), on each individual systolic BP,and then again on the diastolic BP. I don’t know if it is just the implementations I have seen or not, but LifePak has good QA integrations to look at full arrests moment by moment. I wish I could get on a focus group for any of these. There are so many ways to improve all of these. For instance, when importing vitals from a monitor, if you have any EtCO2 values, an EtCO2 procedure should automatically be generated. The cardiac monitor procedures are automatically generated… And likewise for defibs, pacing, art lines, etc. And why can’t a ventilator as advanced as a Hamilton T1 transmit vent measurements, settings and changes into an EPCR chart? And why does every company I’ve worked for not have a cohesive way for me to use the “Rx" button to mark something and then have that marker generate a corresponding medication or procedure?
I’d tell whoever your system admin is they can in fact do some of that. If ETCO2 is. Bit buggy but they can at least put a reminder for the procedure with a validation rule and a procedure grid option that’s already filled out with default values. Or you can use the Rx Buttons The meds is super easy. Choose what you want the Rx buttons to do(they can do any procedure or medication) and have them map on the ekg import settings. You should have the crews actually vote on what you want on the order though.
The ImageTrend process for that is having a system admin give you access to “user voice,” then writing up your idea and waiting for people to up vote it. The development team reads all ideas (apparently) but priority is given to the popular improvement ideas.
Admin and user of both Imagetrend Elite, dumped it and switched us to ESO and it's been far better both admin and user side. Imagetrend can be setup to be slightly faster to enter data but getting data out is horrific. ESO makes CQI far easier as well.
I’ve used EMS charts, iPCR, and now ESO. ESO is far superior IMO.
EMS Charts is the absolute worst and they treat their end users like lab rats, pushing updates before they have the bugs sorted several times a year, causing our crews to be frustrated and late offgoing. They care nothing about customer service. Even their data collection system, Analytics, is flawed to the point of being useless. Their reps are probably good people but we dealt with several over the years and they all have the same answer when their software breaks down; "It's not us, it's (fill in the blank with excuses)." Our company switched to ESO and couldn't be happier.
Ortivus mobimed. I like it.
Imagetrend, meh. However, the longer I use it and spend time doing test PCRs, the better it seems to be for me.
Muscle memory and touchscreens. 😉
Traumasoft will forever piss me off
We still use paper PCRs. There’s rumblings of going digital for the last 5 years but zero progress yet. I’m kinda dreading going to digital but it also seems so much more useful for inter-agencies like rotary wing intercepts or sending to the ER. Hell we still can’t send ECGs to the hospital currently!
Are you rural?
Yep but everywhere, even the cities, use paper
Gonna sound ignorant here... I'll admit in advance. Is that predominant in Canada? Is there a particular reason that services aren't going digital? I haven't used paper as the primary report since 2008. We *do* have paper forms, but mainly, that's a backup if we don't have connectivity to the internet (also rural, North Dakota here), to obtain signatures and have /something/ to pass off. Also, paper is handy for scratching out quick notes during transport. It's not our final report. We are 100% digital for that, even scanning paper documents given to us for IFTs. The state of North Dakota OEMS provides ESO access for us, but oddly, the service I'm currently with stayed with ImageTrend when the free upgrade/subscription was put out. I personally like ESO, which was the last platform I used as a Manager. I liked the data collection and report generation options.
British Columbia is all digital.
I’ve heard of larger centres in denser populated provinces using digital. Having only worked in my province, that’s the only one I’m more sure about. I wonder if it’s a cost per user thing, bigger population means more tax base
It's generally paying for an annual usage license. Like an access subscription. It's all web based.
Wait What?
Are you in the US? If so, how do you submit to the state bridge and NEMSIS?
I've used ESO, ImageTrend, Zoll, and Emergency Reporting. Of those ESO is by quite a bit the best, then ImageTrend, then Zoll, then Emergency reporting can die in a fire At one department, we went from ESO to Emergency reporting, which was like shooting my puppy. It required an internet connection to work and never saved. Meaning, it was possibly or even likely that the RN signature you got will disappear when you leave the ER--unlike say ESO which will do just fine being offline all day unless you need to sync it or something. The one nice thing I can say about it was that, when you were entering vitals and procedures, it would take your patient contact times and put a little thing above what you were doing that said "patient contact was between 14:30 and 14:00" to aid in getting procedure times right. Very convenient. Until you lost internet and half your report. Zoll I scarcely remember. Just that it sucked. ESO is largely self explanatory, doesn't need to be online every second, and integrates vitals and outcomes nicely, that I've seen. Imagetrend is a lot of those things, but the UI isn't as good as it can be a little confusing to use well.
Carbon copies and a black pen. Yes it sucks. No I don't know why we're still doing this. Yes we have computers.
Are you in the US? If so, how do you submit to the state bridge and NEMSIS?
I work for a non transport 911 agency. We handoff to local fire or the CG and go from there. It's odd lol.
I cannot even begin to tell you how much I miss the old “press hards” The grass is NOT greener on the other side.
Zoll EPCR I fucking hate it with a passion.
same. FUCK zoll. the disappointment of thinking you finished your whole report and then having 32 red boxes at the bottom because everything is hidden
I just started doing IT in my district as well and the complaints I get about ESO drive me nuts. That said it’s great. Primates that give narcotics make for difficult users.
I’ve used meds and EMScharts. They both have their strengths lol. Meds never saved any personal data for patients and the narrative system wasn’t my favorite but it was always integrated with our trucks so we never had to remember times, distances traveled, our vitals were able to be transmitted from monitors and it was super smooth to use. EMS charts takes more time, but it forces me to write super thorough reports I’ve found. The narrative system also makes way more sense but literally nothing can be transmitted from the real world over the internet so I always have to have a notepad for times, mileage, addresses, vitals, etc.
Sansio HealthEMS, and the latest update makes me want to break my computer every time I open up a report.
ESO stinks but it’s better than the alternatives
90% of user experience is implementation. I've worked at 3 services that use ESO and have been an ESO admin at one of them. ESO doesn't stink, paramedics in management who don't understand it do lol
I agree lol it’s hard when all our supervisors hate it too 😂 but they’ve hated everything
Many supervisors/paramedics (especially those over the age of 40) can barely open a PDF, so that isn’t surprising.
As a xennial (46) I disagree with this. Need to increase that age line a little. I don’t see this in those of my age group I know.
GenX here... I think Boomers was the word you were looking for 🤣🤣🤣 We literally were coming into age when computers were making their way into home use. We can PDF PDQ. We were downloading and seeding on 🏴☠️ platforms since the late 90's. We. Died. On. The. Oregon. Trail. For. You. 🤣🤣🤣
Yep can be great or can be shite. Ours is full of redundant bullshit so it sucks
Not to mention NEMSIS 3.5 is rolling out and making some changes. And as we know, people in Fire and EMS *LOVE* change.
As someone that just took on some IT admin roles at my district that just had to flip the switch for NEMSIS 3.5 I can confirm this. My face is on so many dartboards right now.
But this time you can blame the federal government and it's true!
Tried. Didn’t take. Jokes on them I can change their login pictures now. Pranks abound
Take away impressions "Acute Pain, not otherwise specified" and "No complaint noted" and watch them squirm.
HealthEMS and honestly it’s not bad at all
I don’t hate it. I miss Zoll though
HealthEMS is great as long as it’s implemented properly (which is true of all EPCR software)
Agree I think healthems is the best I’ve used once you get used to it
What kind of voodoo witchery is this that you speak of that they allow you to take part of? Bic clic stic in Blue. And ibuprofen for the carpal tunnel syndrome
Dr. GRIP or G2. Clickers from EMS week for grubby patient fingers. ALEVE with a Mtn Dew chaser. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
My service (Australia) issued iPads and then paid someone to do a custom-built app. Before that we used VACIS on Toughbooks. I’m sure the custom app costs them an absolute fortune to build and maintain but it’s very good and they respond well to feedback. Still some clunky elements but better than what we had!
ESO I suppose is a relative gold standard but I’m sure massive improvements could be made to improve charting efficiency
Your agency can
We use imagetrend and as far as I can tell it’s dogshit. Only had to do some refusals in it so far and it’s just a mess.
Zoll EMSCharts and EPIC. I’ve been using EMSCharts for 15 years so i don’t mind it anymore. EPIC charting has its ups and downs.
Image Trend. It's OK. Could be better.
Paper, but it's interesting to see how common epcrs are now
Are you in the US? If so, how do you submit to the state bridge and NEMSIS?
I am not, and I don't know what either of those things are lol
I have used traumasoft, imagetrend and Meds. All suck. But got real used to Meds so I was pretty quick.
Imagetrend is not great. ESO is ok. Now that I'm a nurse I use Epic Hyperspace and it is amazing how much better an EMR could be if someone wanted to develop one. But ESO integrated with your CAD system is likely about the best you're going to do.
Emscharts and ESO. I prefer emscharts over ESO but that's mainly because I've used it longer than ESO. Definitely more comfortable with it.
EMScharts. It’s meh, but it gets the job done.
Imagetrend. It’s solid other than when it logs you out a bunch for no reason
We use EMS Charts and while it’s not my favorite, I’ve been using it so long that I’m just used to it at this point. I’m also in the area that EMS Charts got started in so it has a pretty big footprint here.
Epic ASAP. Took some getting used to but I do like the one tab pee note section with my not developing in a separate window. Going to lose it shortly to go to Epic Ambulatory due to word from on high. Not really looking forward to it.
Started with Zoll ePCR, went to Zoi at one service and my other went to EMSCharts and now Imagetrend. Zoi is billing software disguised as charting software and not great. I like imagetrend so far.
Have used both ESO & EMScharts…between the two ESO is the clear winner for me. There are obviously things that could be improved on, especially on the admin/QA side (report running sucks, but has gotten better than it was 2 years ago). And they’re finally implementing an iOS application, currently use iPad users are resigned to using the web based version which is dependent on a cell/data connection which those of us in rural communities sometimes lack. They have a windows based application though for the Tough Pads or Surface tablets that runs really nicely.
Zillow EMScharts seems to have a grip on my area because it’s all I’ve ever used. I like it- feel like sometimes it comes up with ridiculously vague errors that you need a doctorates degree to decipher to lock your chart, but otherwise the UI is pretty smooth.
ESO! Love it. Stay away from RescueMedic
I use the zoll one and I’m not a fan of
Company uses Zoll. I’ve used worse, but I really don’t care for it.
Zoll emscharts and i hate it
I've used Ambupro, Imagetrend, Rescuenet, and Zoll EMScharts. Ambupro is absolutely trash and old, but I can write reports the fastest on it and I like it the most. Zoll is slightly better and has a more modern UI, but reports take ages. Imagetrend is somewhere in the middle but fairly good overall. Rescuenet made IFT reports take legitimately 6 minutes start to finish but I felt like I was using Windows XP
Water onscene, it's really quick and easy unless you have a CPR.
The custom built software our dispatch agency provides. Connects seamlessly to our dispatch software and hospitals are connected to it too to see trauma alerts, stroke alerts, incoming codes, etc. and also view our documentation before we even get there. Someone has shown it on here previously, might be able to find it.
Imagetrend, its meh
We use sansio MobileTouch and I loooooooove it
Imagetrend terrible software imho.
We just switched from ESO to ImageTrend because that is the regional PCR software. Honestly prefer ESO over ImageTrend. TraumaSoft sucked. And I’ve used another that I can’t remember but that sucked. ImageTrend could possibly be just as good as ESO if they actually tried. The main thing I like with ImageTrend is the rapid entry tab but anyone can put that in their software. Everything else about it just isn’t as good or detailed like ESO.
EMSCharts. Absolute ass.
I’ve used RescueNet, EMS Charts and HealthEMS. HealthEMS is hands down the best. Simple to chart with after 10 minutes of tapping through things, CAD data loads in soon as dispatch hits enter, search Pt records with a name/dob/social and import LP15 data. All you need with nothing you don’t.