InQuickER - Thats what she said

A new marketing tool has made its debut in many local Emergency Rooms. Most notably, at Dignity Health. The Human Kindness folks. Its called InQuickER. Its a web based tool to allow one to make appointments in their participating Emergency Department from the comfort of their own home via their Smart Phone.

The theory goes like this. You have an urgent issue, but not something life threatening, and you do not want to wait in a crowded Emergency Room full of coughing Ebola patients. You pull out your Smart Phone and make an appointment in your local ED and are assigned an appointment time. You wait in the comfort of you own home and when you arrive you get right in, supposedly. The program will kick you out if you put in key words such as "Chest Pain" or "Stroke". and will advise you to call 911. It contains disclaimers that your appointment time is not guaranteed if there are real emergencies to deal with. The ED will receive a fax that your on the way and the staff is instructed to accommodate your arrival. If your time cannot be accommodated due to department acuity or volume the ED can push your appointment back in 30 min increments. You will get a message if your appointment time is altered.

Just a few problems other than the obvious question of Appointments in the ED, Really! The keyword recognition is really not that smart. There was a sentinel event at one Human Kindness facility that involved a pediatric death shortly after going live with this program. A mother had a sick child, made her online appointment and waited at home with her child. Her complaint description did not trigger the key word trigger and the fax to the ED did not set off any alarm bells. When the patient was brought in at the appointment time he was in severe shock and expired after resuscitation. Would the outcome have been different if she just brought the child in without waiting at home. Who knows. No problem. The RCA determined that a few tweaks of the Key Word sensitivity would prevent a further occurrence. I'm not so sure.

Thoughts, comments on your experiences with InQuickER or like programs. Is this program helpful or just a cheesy attempt to market Emergency Department services?