Effect of Body-Worn Cameras on EMS Documentation Accuracy: A Pilot Study

Area of Science:

• Emergency Medicine
• Medical Documentation
• Technology in Healthcare

Background:

• Current Emergency Medical Services (EMS) documentation relies on memory post-event, potentially introducing significant inaccuracies.
• Objective documentation methods, such as video recording, are increasingly used in society to verify events.
• Body-worn cameras (BWCs) are not widely adopted by EMS, despite their potential for objective record-keeping.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the accuracy of current EMS documentation practices.
• To determine the effect of Body-worn Cameras (BWCs) on the accuracy of paramedic documentation.

Main Methods:

• A prospective, observational study was conducted in a simulation lab with ten paramedics.
• Paramedics responded to a simulated medical emergency while wearing a BWC.
• Documentation was completed from memory, followed by a review of BWC footage and subsequent revisions, categorized by change severity.

Main Results:

• A total of 71 documentation changes were made after video review (7 minor, 51 moderate, 13 major).
• All participating paramedics made documentation changes after reviewing BWC footage.
• Changes were found to correlate indirectly with years of experience, indicating that even experienced paramedics benefited from video review.

Conclusions:

• Existing EMS documentation methods exhibit significant inaccuracies, irrespective of paramedic experience.
• The implementation of BWC technology demonstrated a notable improvement in EMS documentation accuracy within this pilot study.
• BWCs show promise as a tool to enhance the reliability and objectivity of medical records in pre-hospital care.