Audacious Inquiry Publishes Guide on Care Coordination During Natural Disasters at the Start of Most Active Hurricane Season in 30 Years

BALTIMORE, June 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Audacious Inquiry published a new eBook providing an in-depth discussion of key challenges and information gaps in disaster and emergency response and how to leverage health information technology (HIT) to support and coordinate patient care during unique disaster situations. 2021 is predicted to have the highest average number of Atlantic hurricanes in 30 years of hurricane seasons, with 19 named storms, 7 hurricanes and 4 major hurricanes expected. As the number of disasters per year continues to increase, it is paramount for jurisdictions to prepare for potential public health and clinical impacts to their communities, including addressing care coordination challenges identified in past disasters, like Hurricanes Katrina, Michael, Irma and Maria. 

Natural disasters and other emergencies often cause people to be displaced from their homes, resulting in patients seeking medical treatments at facilities outside of their typical care networks. Some of the key challenges in providing care to displaced patients include disruptions in medical care and medication adherence, as providers at alternate care facilities often lack access to important patient information otherwise available in healthcare settings. Patient tracking, evacuation, and family reunification efforts are equally impacted. The new eBook highlights how HIT solutions can be used to enable more informed clinical decision-making and remove the need for staff resources to manually track down clinical records or patient locations through phone or fax.

"We are on a constant quest to build the single most impactful platform for aligning better care. It is a natural extension for us to bring of our two decades of leadership in real-time encounter notification to an area of disaster, preparedness, and response, as the impact on communities and people's lives are so significant." said Scott Afzal, President of Audacious Inquiry

As a leader at the intersection of health information technology and emergency preparedness, Audacious Inquiry has taken on the mission to empower providers and emergency responders with the necessary information to support and coordinate patient care during natural disasters and public emergencies. Audacious Inquiry's PULSE Enterprise (Patient Unified Lookup System for Emergenciestm) platform is a cloud-based, scalable software solution that allows providers to solve critical gaps in patient care during emergencies and meet any level of organizational need. Activated during times of crisis, PULSE Enterprise gives providers the real-time patient information required to make informed decisions at the point of care.  

"Part of resilience in the face of disaster is being ready to respond no matter what incident comes your way," said Lauren Knieser, Audacious Inquiry's Senior Director, Emergency Preparedness and Response. "As response partners, Audacious Inquiry is proud to be able to support a rapid implementation for affected communities to ensure that people seeking care in non-traditional environments receive quality care."

Authorized users, including providers in alternate care facilities and public health authorities, can view clinical documents that contain information about a patient's medications, allergies, diagnoses, and lab results, which may not be included in the oral history during triage at an alternate care facility. PULSE Enterprise leverages national networks that include clinical data for over 205 million individuals and Surescripts Medication History for 324 million individuals.  The PULSE Enterprise solution also supports connections to custom and local data sources, like regional, state, or territorial health information exchanges.

"Surescripts is proud of our work over the last 20 years to support physicians with access to complete and accurate patient medication history when prescribing or conducting medication reconciliation in the course of routine care," explains Mike Pritts, Chief Product Officer at Surescripts. "As the nation's most trusted health information network, we recognize the importance of enabling care providers to deliver medications outside of normal care settings during emergencies and other natural disasters to patients who have been displaced and need access to critical medications."

As the nation prepares for more potential disasters, PULSE Enterprise is available for emergency preparedness and public health stakeholders to best meet community, state, and federal needs during and after emergencies. As the nation prepares to respond to more frequent disasters, it is imperative that emergency preparedness and response professionals have access to technology that meets their unique care coordination and delivery needs. 

Audacious Inquiry is continuously working to help local, state, and federal governments adopt health information technology for natural disasters and emergencies, and PULSE Enterprise is readily available e for activation in any geographic area during and after emergencies

Download the eBook to learn more about the use of health IT and disaster responses.

About Audacious Inquiry
Audacious Inquiry is a national industry-shaping health IT company that provides a connected care platform facilitating the secure transmission of actionable, accurate, and event-driven data across the U.S. healthcare system. Audacious Inquiry's pioneering software solutions help providers and care managers be proactive during the most important moments, including during transitions of care. This information helps at-risk providers and payers working within value-based arrangements reduce costs and improve patient outcomes. With years of experience developing health data exchanges at the federal and state level, Audacious Inquiry is a trusted partner to health plans, health systems, Health Information Exchange Organizations, public health agencies, and federal, state, and local government agencies across the country. Audacious Inquiry's trusted solutions, which include its flagship Encounter Notification Service® (ENS) and the Patient Unified Lookup System for Emergenciestm (PULSE), serve more than 70 million people nationwide. For more information, visit us at ainq.com, or follow us on Twitter at @A_INQ.

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SOURCE Audacious Inquiry