St. Cloud Regional: There's an App for That

    St. Cloud Regional Medical Center officials announced the introduction of an iPhone app and mobile sites to facilitate extra fast and extra easy customer service.
    The next stage in the “ER Extra” campaign is the a free iPhone app and mobile sites that perform a similar function for smartphones. For those not requiring immediate emergent care, the ER Extra app is designed to help decision making in emergency care extra fast and extra easy.
    The app is designed specifically to provide wait times, a map, a link to the main website and the phone number of the nearest Health Management hospital. The ER Extra iPhone app can be downloaded for free at the iTunes app store, and can also be used on the iPad. Even though this app is dedicated solely to iPhone and iPad users, the hospital has also created mobile sites that allow similar features to be used on any smartphone.
    Mobile sites are designed to recognize that the user is accessing a website via their smartphone as opposed to a traditional computer. When you search for the name of a Health Management hospital, and click on the link, you will immediately see a very important safety reminder.
    The safety reminder reads as follows: Information in this application is not a substitute for medical advice. If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor or 911.
    Users are then prompted to continue on to the hospital’s ER Extra webpage where they can see the current wait time, click through for directions to the hospital or to call the hospital, and they also have the option to view the hospital’s full website.
    ER wait times are tracked by the ProMed tool. They reflect the average wait time of the patients that were triaged during the previous hour. The data comes to our hospital in a feed directly from ProMed, a tool which tracks Time to Triage.
    All of these tools are made possible because of strides made last year in providing ER wait times online. These new tools will only further enhance patients’ experiences and allow SCRMC to reach their goal of exceeding expectations.
    St. Cloud Regional Medical Center is located at 2906 17th Street in St. Cloud. For more information, call 407.892.2135 or visit www.stcloudregional.com.