Does it stand up to its top three promises?
An EMS Industry Personnel Review of CloudPCR by Unified
Unified Solutions states that three things separate them from other PCR companies: ease of use, customizability, and customer service. Late one Friday night on day two of a 48-hour shift, I decided to see if Unified Solutions CloudPCR stood up to their claim.
I wanted to see how easy (and fast) it was to write a PCR, how much I could customize the system, and if there really was 24/7 help available to me at 11 pm on a Friday. Here’s what my tired eyes found.
1. Ease of Use
I’m going to spend a good portion of my time here, because on a day-to-day basis, this is what impacts me the most. I was impressed with the number of useful features Unified Solutions has. There are a lot, so I’m not going to list them all here, but I suggest you make a stop at the CloudPCR page, scroll down to “Why You Should Choose CloudPCR”, and hover over the ones that look interesting to you. You’ll probably find yourself saying something like, “oh wow, that would be super helpful!” Here, I will highlight some of the ones that made me think just that.
The Mileage Calculator
On every call, I must check Google Maps for two different mileages – station to scene, and scene to hospital. Then, I have to enter those manually. On the Unified Solutions CloudPCR, I hit a button that takes my addresses into account (which, by the way, are pop-up style searchable just as they are on Google Maps), and it auto-populates that info for me. Done. Time saver. Enough said.
CAD Integration
YES PLEASE. When times, call numbers, and call types are automatically generated in my PCR, it saves me not only time but also the frustration of jumping back and forth between two different screens, even if I don’t have internet or cell connection to do so in my rural, mountainous district.
Patient History and PCR Lookup
This is another huge time saver. We all have those patients we run on once a week. If you don’t already have their medication list memorized, now your PCR system does. I like the PCR lookup option here, because, on the way to the call, I can see what happened when the last crew ran on this patient. For me, that contributes to quality and continuity of care, which is a goal we should all be pursuing.
Previous Patient Alerts
I. LOVE. THIS. I work in the mountains. We run into all kinds of challenging things from terrible, “don’t-even-try” driveways to front yards full of horses, goats, llamas, and one big guard dog. With this feature, you can click a button to place a flag/alert/warning. This will display for any future crews that travel to this address. To me, this is a significant safety feature.
Report Notes
This is something I have not encountered in other PCR systems. This feature allows you to share notes and discussions on a particular PCR/patient with other people in your organization. The notes are HIPAA secure, and they are NOT part of the official record, so you can safely have real and educational conversations here. This would be a great place to tie in my medical direction or EMS hospital liaisons to discuss a case or get follow-up .
Speech-Enabled Narrative Writing
I have saved the best for last in this section. This feature alone made me want to go to my agency and request a change in our system. With Unified Solutions CloudPCR, you can use the voice-to-text feature on your phone or tablet to dictate PCRs (all devices work with CloudPCR). I would have my reports done in no time with this feature; this was one of the most exciting things I discovered on this platform. Now we, too, can quickly dictate as the ER docs can!
2. Customizability
On many PCR systems I’ve used, I waste so much time clicking on “not applicable” for things that simply don’t apply on a given call, not necessary because either it was a refusal or some other reason that makes it irrelevant.
In the Unified Solutions CloudPCR, an admin can edit your dropdowns and can change requirements depending on the type of call.
The option for field value defaults is also helpful. For example, 99% of the time, the reason for my transport to any given hospital is going to be the “closest facility.” Unified Solutions CloudPCR allows me to set that as a default answer. The 1% of the time the answer is different, I simply pull down the menu and change it. You could do this for anything that is relatively consistent for your agency.
3. Customer Service
Yes, I utilized their “chat” feature at nearly 11 pm on a Friday. I wanted to know if anyone was actually there. I did not get a message back immediately, but I did get a message back at about 1 am. While I’m curious to inquire of Unified Solutions what their average response time is, I thought it was pretty good that someone answered my question at 1 am on a Saturday. I wrote back around noon, and I received another response about two hours later.
The chances of me sending a “need-an-answer-now” message to a representative in the middle of a call are slim to none, so I’m okay with a little turnaround time, however, I did go one step further and called the number on their website. Someone promptly answered, was very friendly, gave me some information, and I let him back to his Saturday.
What About Any Cons?
There was one thing I found difficult, and it was not in functionality, but in appearance. The screen (both on the PCR page and the home page of my Unified Solutions account) feels crowded. In some areas, the font is small, and there is a lot of it packed into one space. I will admit that when I first opened this platform, it felt a bit overwhelming. As I dug in and learned where everything was, it felt more manageable. However, at 3am some white space is nice, as are some larger fonts. If I had one piece of advice for Unified Solutions, it would be to address this issue and consider what the brain might prefer on 36 hours of no sleep and five calls in.
In Conclusion...
Unified Solutions states that they have created an ePCR that “just works.” I would tend to agree. They did, indeed, stand up to their claims of ease of use, customizability, and customer service. The features I explore above are just a handful of them. I encourage you to watch their demo video and to check out their visually friendly brochure
Stay safe, and happy charting.
To demo the application, visit: https://unified-solutions.io/pcr/
About Unified
Unified Solutions is a fast-growing, innovative software company that focuses on the first responder community. They are currently in 27 states, many countries, multiple languages and expanding fast. They provide a comprehensive software suite including Billing Services, Truck Checks, Learning Management System, Transport Scheduling, Crew Scheduling, and more. Since their founding in 2014, they have worked to make software solutions faster, more accessible, easier to use, and more data-driven.