FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

More and more agencies are being forced to do more with less time, money and resources. This imposes limitations on systems and their ability to adequately measure, monitor and improve their patient care processes. FirstPass is suited for any agency that is recording patient care and interventions in a digital format such as ePCR. Agencies using FirstPass vary from county EMS systems, local/private EMS providers to fire department EMS providers. Some leading EMS innovators using FirstPass include but are not limited to: St. Charles Community Ambulance District, Sedgwick County EMS, Metro Atlanta Ambulance Service and North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System. FirstPass customers are using this tool within the “Bundle of Care” approach, or customizing protocol unique to their agency’s needs. Customers are using the FirstPass tool to look at things like risk management, billing compliance, universal treatments or if a patient was treated but not transported, to name a few. Some agencies interfaced with both ePCR and Hospital data are able to use FirstPass for the beginning of outcome reporting.

One of the biggest challenges facing emergency responders in the U.S. is the so-called “stovepipe effect,” in which one agency or city is unable to share data with others. FirstWatch overcomes this by automatically aggregating data across city, county or state lines for a true analysis of regional or even national trends. FirstWatch analyzes more than 35,000 incidents every day, that’s about 14,000,000 new incidents annually from across the USA and Canada. FirstWatch is the largest aggregated international database of its kind.

Providing that the data source (CAD, ePCR, ProQA, Hospital Data etc.) FirstWatch is interfaced with captures relevant data that can be used to evaluate against your systems protocols, FirstPass can have a high degree of customization. Once a customer defines what they want to measure, we can build custom protocols that look for quality metrics driven by customer focused initiatives as well as regional or state level mandates. While FirstPass is highly customizable, we recommend starting with our “Bundle of Care” approach. This initial set of evidence based protocols is designed to encompass recognized standards of care, the affordable care act and overall best practices. The bundle of care is divided into four components: system performance measures, clinical performance measures, patient/safety risk reduction performance measures, and financial performance measures. For more information on this approach, please contact our sales team.

FirstWatch is regularly deployed during high profile events to provide security and medical officials real-time monitoring for any potential threats. Most recently, FirstWatch was deployed during the 2011 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperative in Hawaii, during Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and at the NCAA Final Four Tournament. It is scheduled to be deployed during the 2012 Republican and Democratic National Conventions and during the 2013 Super Bowl.

FirstWatch is a non-database specific data analysis and surveillance tool and 911 data is just one of the systems it integrates with. Others include prehospital electronic patient care reports, hospital emergency department reports, billing, ProQA, lab, pharmacy and poison control, all of which can be monitored in real-time. (View Full List of Data Sources: FW-Data-Sources-2019)

Healthcare is moving to quality measurement, bringing with it improved patient care – and financial implications. Simply stated, the components of the Affordable Care Act are directly related to controlling cost through a focus on quality of care. The same quality measures that are driving change in healthcare will soon be coming to EMS. Progressive EMS agencies are monitoring, measuring and managing quality to improve patient care and ensure success when financial incentives become realities. FirstPass helps to agencies to define, automate and streamline their measures and monitor in a timely, consistent and reliable manner. This will allow systems to make corrections and demonstrate timely and effective care through the tracking of patient satisfaction and outcomes in real-time.

FirstPass is an add-on, enhancement module that sits on top of FirstWatch. FirstWatch is the foundation for which the data is derived, where you define the things you want to look at and calls are pulled based on user-defined filters. FirstPass then takes that data through a very structured process of algorithms and logic to evaluate specific quality oriented protocols, tests and outcomes. A queue based tool, FirstPass allows members of QA/QI, risk management and the medical director’s office to all access and work through one singular quality improvement tool.
Many FirstWatch customer partners have deployed FirstWatch using grant monies. Grants.Gov (hyper-link Grants/Gov to: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/home.html) is a great informational resource that includes Grants from many Federal & State Programs. To date, FirstWatch customers have used grant monies from Department of Homeland Security (DHS), State Homeland Security Grant Program (SHSGP) monies, the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI), in addition to HHS Grants from CDC, CDC-BT, CDC-PHER (PHEP) ASPR and HRSA. Some years there may also be homeland security focus-area programs that could offer monies for regional data sharing or situational awareness collaborations with Law enforcement, Fire, EMS, Emergency Preparedness, Emergency Management, Bioterrorism as well as Public Health epidemiology teams. Learn more about grants and to search program & submission details for the Federal, State & Local level grants, please visit Grants.Gov Search Page https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/search-grants.html. Alternately, you can also reach out to your State Administrative Agency (SAA) or Local Council Of Government (COG) Grants team, or even contact FirstWatch to learn more.

FirstWatch automatically sends alerts to authorized, user-defined personnel via email, pager, SMS-text message or fax. Alerts can contain summary reports, charts, graphs, maps and other important or mission critical information.

FirstWatch technology was first installed in Kansas City, Mo., in 1999. Today, the FirstWatch network protects more than 124 million people served by over 500 agencies in more than 45+ states & provinces across North America.

As the name implies, real-time surveillance involves live analysis of data to identify patterns and trends as they emerge, rather than waiting days or weeks for conventional detection methods. Early detection allows earlier action to be taken, saving lives and protecting property.

FirstWatch has successfully alerted officials to a number of different threats, including the 2009 H1N1 pandemic occurrences across the U.S. and Canada, as well as early identification of emerging influenza outbreaks in Texas, Virginia and Oklahoma in 2003. The severe ice storms and carbon monoxide poisoning cases were mitigated in a number of communities throughout the U.S. via the usage of FirstWatch, combined with proactive public service announcements over broadcast media. FirstWatch detected geographic patterns of motor vehicle property crimes in one Texas community and aided-in the arrest of the ring behind those crimes. FirstWatch also assisted investigators to identify and re-arrest a career criminal in Iowa. During the California wildfires in 2003 and 2007, San Diego officials used FirstWatch extensively to track geographic spikes in respiratory symptoms and redeploy EMS resources to areas of the city most affected by smoke plumes. FirstWatch has also alerted public health and safety officials of a serious food poisoning event in the Florida Panhandle. 

Since a very early age, more than 340 million people across much of North America have been educated to call 911 for help, whether for a health emergency, to report a crime or call in a traffic collision. With 911 data, we know what happened, where it happened, when it happened, who was affected, and what public safety resources are required — all typically within a few minutes of the first call to 911. Using FirstWatch to analyze 911 communication call center data for police, fire, or EMS provides public safety, public health, and homeland security teams with the ability to be aware of situations and early indications of potentially harmful trends, patterns, or clusters of occurrences that could threaten citizens or first responders. Unlike conventional health surveillance data systems, public safety data systems are exceptionally time-sensitive with systematically gathered information such as medical symptoms, acuity and precise geographic locations of incidents. Additionally, 911 systems typically cover large geographic and metro areas enhancing the value of the analysis by providing a large catchment area. 

The overarching goal of FirstPass is to provide automated data analysis for clinical indicators and quality measures – all in real-time, at your fingertips. With FirstPass, QA/QI teams can now spend more time working to improve patient outcomes rather than filtering through every patient record to locate potential outliers that could indicate opportunities for improvement in patient care. FirstPass automates a process that is traditionally time, resources and labor intensive; you will now know right away when a call is outside the expected parameters occurs. Real-time feedback and knowledge of what is happening within your system at all times allows for collaboration amongst crew members, managers, QI/QA analysts, the Medical Director and any other stakeholders involved. Ultimately, this will result in rewarding success to crew members for a job well done and improving patient outcomes by focusing on areas of improvement and continuing education in a timely and continuous manner.

Yes, we have an Early Bird Discount and a Same Agency Discount. Early registration is $790. After Aug. 9, 2024, registration increases to $890. We offer a $50 per person discount on each additional attendee from the same agency.