INTER-FACILITY TRANSFER NETWORKS

MANAGE PATIENT FLOW

Beacon coordinates patient referrals between facilities and reduces bottlenecks across entire health systems.

Three basic elements are well-managed in an efficient and reliable inter-facility transfer network:

1. RIGHT PATIENT

2. RIGHT VEHICLE

3. RIGHT FACILITY

Beacon ensures all three elements are coordinated as efficiently as possible, allowing doctors and healthcare administrators to more effectively allocate resources for patient referrals at all times.

CASE STUDY

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

In October 2014, the first Beacon incident was dispatched by the Manzanillo Fire Department in the northwest corner of the Dominican Republic for a woman with a complicated delivery who needed to be transported to a facility with higher care 30 minutes north. Since then Beacon has been used to request and coordinate transport for hundreds of patients between more than 10 facilities using (pictured at right). The majority of these patients have been for obstetrical complications, but also regularly include referrals for orthopedic injuries and infectious disease cases like cholera, dengue and malaria. Also included here are the vehicles used as part of the overall referral network.

HOW IT WORKS

INTER-FACILITY
TRANSFERS

1. DECISION

The decision to refer an acute patient to a higher-level facility is made by a doctor.

2. REQUEST

Hospital staff calls the referral network call center to request a transport vehicle.

3. ALERT

A dispatcher takes the patient’s information and sends it out as a text message to all available vehicles through Beacon.

4. CONFIRMATION

Beacon selects the nearest and most appropriate vehicle of those replying to the alert.

5. PICK-UP

The patient’s pick-up location is shared with the responding vehicle and arrival on-scene is confirmed via Beacon.

6. DELIVERY

The patient is transferred to an appropriate facility; advanced notification is sent to the receiving hospital pre-departure and/or pre-arrival.

BEACON IN THE FIELD

“Bringing 911 Service to the Developing World With Smartphones and Motorcycles”

Photographer: Dennis M. Rivera Pichardo for Bloomberg Businessweek

Referral Footage from Beacon Deployment in the Dominican Republic

CAN BEACON HELP YOU?

Send us an email to let us know how Beacon could help your operations today.

info@trekmedics.org

Beacon Features:

Low-tech set-up — A single internet connected-device is required to launch
Universal accessibility — Can be used on any mobile phone, whether smartphone or feature phone, with or without internet connectivity
Easy-to-use interface — Text message interactions require minimal input, are easily followed, and are predictable; Admin and Dispatch interface is intuitive and accessible on any device
Automated control – After creating the initial alert, all resource coordination is automated, eliminating the need for dispatchers to micromanage individual resources
Low-maintenance operations — No need to download apps or worry about updates; just register the Responder’s mobile phone number and they’re ready to go
Modular architecture for easy customization — Beacon v2.0 has been re-built using a modular architecture to enable custom changes to message content and response sequence workflow
Remote access or local installation — The Beacon platform is open source and freely available. However, not everyone has software programmers on staff, so we can make Beacon available to you at a nominal cost via access to our remote servers. For installation on local servers, we’re also available to discuss more

Inter-Facility Transfer Features:

Advanced Notifications — Allows for robust communication between transporting units and receiving facilities by sending status to updates at programmable intervals/checkpoints
Multiple Destinations — Allows for inclusion and designation of multiple sending and receiving facilities
APIs for Patient Care Integration — Allows for off-the-shelf clinical patient care reports to receive direct patient data uploads through Beacon