It's not just for A&E
The main benefit of access to patient records is not in emergency situations. I certainly wouldn't want the medics wasting time looking up my records while my ticker is packing up. Just wire me up and shock me! The real benefit will be in routine or follow-up treatment. I read of a case of a surgeon performing elective surgery, who had to contend with four different sets of patient records for the same patient, each with a different patient number, and no single one of which contained all of the necessary information. One set even had the patient's name spelt differently. It's situations like this where mistakes arise.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
