
Show HN: Health Scout – An app I wrote for a mother traveling with a sick child - rtrivedi
https://itunes.apple.com/US/app/id957055587?mt=8
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rtrivedi
While on vacation, I spoke to a mother who often had to be aware of emergency
rooms around her because her child had health problems. I built this simple
app for her. It's my first app and I'm looking for suggestions on how to make
it better. Right now it only works in the USA but I'm hoping to expand to
Canada very soon.

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philo23
Not sure if it'll be much help, but you might be able to find and scrape data
from here: [http://data.gov.uk/data/search](http://data.gov.uk/data/search) to
do something similar for the UK, I can't seem to find it though.

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DanBC
Except general people should be using pharmacists; in-hours GPs or out of
hours doctors and walk-in-centres; and minor injuries units. A&E should be
reserved for emergency care. There's a very small percentage of people who
need an A&E department and this app would be great for them, but please don't
send people who are not in an emergency to A&E.

[http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/AboutNHSservices/Pages/NHSservi...](http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/AboutNHSservices/Pages/NHSservices.aspx)

[http://www.choosewellglos.nhs.uk/](http://www.choosewellglos.nhs.uk/)

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rtrivedi
Thanks for the links. I'd like to help build a world where people have access
to useful information as easily as possible. Of course, with ease of access to
information people will need to become more responsible. I'm hopeful we can
get there :)

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ceejayoz
I've got a medically sensitive daughter and this is a cool idea. Where does
the data come from? Are you protected in situations where someone might drive
to a now-closed ER?

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rtrivedi
The data comes from
[http://medicare.gov/hospitalcompare/search.html](http://medicare.gov/hospitalcompare/search.html)

It has a pretty good amount of useful data if you're interested in searching
around :).

To answer your second question: I'm not. For the V1 of the app, I'm relying on
the government data being valid. However, I'm currently building an in-app
feedback form that will allow users to (a) report real-time wait times if they
are in the hospital, and (b) report closed ERs / incorrect addresses etc.

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skram
rtrivedi - do you have an email I can reach you on? I work for the company
that helps Medicare.gov (and a lot of other govt agencies) publish their data
online in machine readable formats and I'd love to get feedback from you and
understand how you're using the data and potentially make the data publishers
aware of this use case as well. You can reach me at
mark.silverberg@socrata.com if you prefer not to post your email publicly.

Great job!

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VLM
One minor nitpick, isn't the listed average delay more a measure of the rate
of non-ER traffic in the ER?

I mean if you're in allergic shock or diabetic coma they'll treat you
immediately, but if it takes an uninsured person 8 hours on average to be
treated for a simple cold, then that doesn't really fit the theoretical use
case for the app?

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rtrivedi
Good point. The times that are reported are what the government has captured
as time until you get to see a doctor. I haven't confirmed but I think you're
right. If it's a life threatening situation the hospital will probably treat
you right away (I sure hope they will, anyway). I'm also not sure who makes
the call whether or not you should get treated right away.

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JosephRedfern
It looks pretty slick, nice job. I echo other people's questions about the
source of the data etc.

Also, how do the emergency services work in the US? If you dial 911 and ask
for an ambulance, will you not be taken to the nearest ER anyway? (Asking as
an ignorant Brit!)

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nathannecro
When I have free time, I spend some time working on ALS ambulances to maintain
my certification level.

How EMS works in the US generally follows this path:

You get sick.

You then dial 911.

A dispatcher talks with you, routes your call to an ambulance company, and
provides us with some information on what's going on. If the environment is no
danger to you, they _should_ generally tell you to stay put. Depending on the
nature of the emergency, they'll have some first-responder/stopgap measures
they'll want you (or bystanders) to do. If you have crushing chest pain for
example, they'll explain how to place yourself into a recovery position (in
case you vomit while unconscious), they'll ask for a nearby bystander (in case
they have to instruct them how to perform CPR), and they'll do their best to
keep you calm and aware of your situation. What they don't want you to do
(even if you're 10 minutes away from a hospital) is try to move yourself there
because:

If you become unconscious on the way to the hospital, it becomes so much
harder to find you (rather than if you had stayed in a static location that
you've described).

By moving, you might move from a safe environment to a more dangerous
environment (sidewalk to middle of the street).

When the ambulance arrives, the medic will perform their own assessment of
your condition. If you're alert, they'll ask you questions, ask you to chew
some aspirin, place you on a heart monitor. If you've become unresponsive at
this point, then slightly more drastic measures are taken.

When they load you into the ambulance, they'll make a determination (based
upon their assessment) of where to take you. _The nearest ER may not have the
proper resources to deal with or handle your condition_.

I'm unsure how emergency departments in hospitals outside of the US work, but
here, not all EDs can provide the same level of care. If you're having an MI
(heart attack), and you need cardiac care (a facility that can crack your
chest open), it's _far_ faster for the medic to assess you then immediately
take you to the correct place.

As a contrary example:

If you happen to make it into an ED on your own foot-power and manage to
explain what's going on to the triage nurse, then they _still_ have to call in
an ambulance to transport you to a hospital which can provide an adequate
level of care. In some hospitals, they won't even begin to treat you (because
of liability issues...it's horrible).

TL;DR. Some ERs cannot provide a certain level of care (Trauma Centers,
Cardiac Centers, Psych, etc) and thus the _closest_ ER may not be the
_correct_ ER to go to.

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tgokh
As a medical student and EMS provider, I agree with all of the above except
"In some hospitals, they won't even begin to treat you". Unless you end up at
the rare hospital that doesn't accept Medicare, the ED's are required (by
EMTALA) to provide a screening examination and treat any patient with an
emergency medical condition. For example, any ED should be able to provide you
initial care if you're complaining of chest pain (EKG, Chest X-Ray,
Nitroglycerin, Aspirin etc). That said, if you're actually having a cardiac
event, you'll need to be at a cardiac center to actually get definitive
treatment, so the smaller outlying hospital will call an ambulance to
transport you to the appropriate facility.

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aepearson
As a parent, I can say this is a STELLAR idea. Thank you for taking the time
to make it.

I'm downloading it right now.

This is very relevant to me, my wife and I are planning a 3 week Europe trip
for next summer with our two small children.

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keehun
This is really awesome, and WELL DESIGNED! Looks very easy to use, and such a
great purpose.

Have you thought about the legal ramifications if someone depended on your app
and the info was outdated causing a lot of ache?

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rtrivedi
Thanks for the praise. I definitely have considered the legal ramifications.
I'm going to do my best to keep the data up to date. However, I've attached a
disclaimer in the app that explains the data may not always be accurate. It
should be used for informational purposes only.

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reginawong
Would be helpful to see user reviews for each hospital... and if the hospital
is good for out of country/state travelers.

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jwhyne
Awesome idea. Good work with the clean looking UI. Looking forward to when
it's available in Canada.

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rtrivedi
Thanks! Hopefully in the next update.

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feroz1
This is a really neat app and brilliantly executed! Good luck with it. Would
love a UK version!

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jkot
Be gender neutral, some fathers might find title a bit offensive.

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coob
The title isn't offensive whatsoever, it's a brief origin story.

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jkot
Fair enough, i had not noticed a singular form.

