The newly expanded platform allows Australian first responders and healthcare providers to support behavioural health patients via telehealth and streamlined transfers.
Pulsara, the leading mobile telehealth, communication and logistics platform that unites healthcare teams and technologies across organisations during dynamic events, recently released a dedicated behavioural health patient type allowing Australian ambulance services, hospital teams and other healthcare organisations to better support behavioural health patients. Ambulance services or other first responders can now directly connect with behavioural health facilities, teams or individuals through live group video and audio calling to receive help in determining the most appropriate treatment for the patient. For teams working with patients who need enhanced behavioural health services, this new patient type helps streamline placement to a more appropriate facility. Utilising this new functionality on the Pulsara platform, clinicians can quickly facilitate appropriate real-time treatment for patients, help relieve overcrowded healthcare facilities and save time, money and resources by avoiding unnecessary and extended ED visits.
“The fact that Pulsara can be used both for daily public safety and hospital care coordination and for behavioural health community resources all on one platform is invaluable,” said Josh Jordan, former flight paramedic, firefighter, and current Strategic Accounts Manager at Pulsara. “The best part is that not only does the platform help divert behavioural health patients from already overcrowded emergency departments, but it also makes behavioural healthcare more accessible to all Australian communities, whether rural or urban.”
Pulsara is a HIPAA-compliant, secure, easy-to-use platform that unites the entire multidisciplinary team—even in different departments or organisations—for any patient condition or event. By replacing multiple phone calls, radio reports, faxes and pagers with one unified patient channel, Pulsara enables more efficient patient care from start to finish. This new behavioural health patient type further expands the power of the platform.
People experiencing a behavioural health crisis too often end up in the emergency department or other less than optimal settings when what they really need are resources such as crisis counsellors. During these events, Pulsara helps first responders and hospital clinicians connect patients to the appropriate level of care when and where they need it, fostering support and efficiency in both patient care and in the utilisation of resources.
With just a few taps, community paramedics, police officers or other clinicians can quickly assemble a team on the go based on the situation’s demands, including expert mental health providers, emergency medicine physicians and medical control, all in one secure mobile patient channel. From there, first responders can hold a live group video call with the behavioural health team to determine the best course of treatment for their patients. Specialists can connect with patients to perform a psychological evaluation or conduct a crisis counselling session via telehealth, making healthcare more accessible for marginalised populations and anyone in need of behavioural healthcare.
For patients who are already at the emergency department or hospital and need more specialised behavioural health resources elsewhere, Pulsara’s behavioural health patient type helps clinicians find the most appropriate placement. Pulsara enables communication on a unified patient channel across organisations, streamlining and connecting patient care between each clinician caring for that patient and the current and receiving facility.
Pulsara for behavioural health brings additional benefits to ambulance services and hospital teams, as well: patients who need a psychiatric bed, for example, can bypass the ED, saving valuable time and resources. Minor cases can also be de-escalated, enabling ambulance services to treat in place when possible; patients avoid a trip to the ED and ambulance services and hospital resources are preserved for more critical patients.
“Improving the lives of people in need and those who serve them is our purpose at Pulsara,” shared Dr James Woodson, Founder and CEO of Pulsara. “The value of Pulsara’s new behavioural health patient type extends across the entire Australian healthcare continuum, from ambulance services and emergency departments to the crisis counsellors and physicians specialising in behavioural healthcare. We are thrilled to be adding this new functionality to support both patients and clinicians.”
To learn more about how Pulsara’s behavioural health patient type can help your organisation and to see how one Australian health system has already streamlined care for behavioural health patients, visit www.pulsara.com/en-au/
