Case Study: Queen Anne’s County Department of Emergency Services achieves faster, safer in-field care and improved medication management with Backline by DrFirst

In-Field Access to Patient Data Helps Improve Care and Increase Efficiency

Queen Anne’s County Department of Emergency Services runs a Mobile Integrated Community Healthcare (MICH) program to serve a rural population of about 50,000 with limited in‑county hospital access. The MICH team—paramedics, community nurses and a pharmacist—needed fast, reliable access to up‑to‑date medication histories and a secure way to share patient data and consult remotely during home visits and 911 responses. To solve this, Queen Anne’s County Department of Emergency Services implemented the Backline for EMS care collaboration platform from Backline by DrFirst in mid‑2021.

Using Backline by DrFirst, paramedics can scan a driver’s license barcode to pull six months of medication history, use HIPAA‑compliant secure texting to share notes and care plans with the pharmacist and responding crews, and initiate telehealth visits for medication reconciliation. The platform replaced inefficient phone/voicemail workflows, enabled pharmacist-led medication therapy management (resolving duplicate prescriptions, correcting dosing errors, identifying affordable alternatives), reduced the risk of adverse drug events, and allowed teams to transmit patient information en route to hospitals; Backline by DrFirst was also provided at no cost to the county for two years via a Maryland grant.

Queen Anne’s County Department of Emergency Services

Scott Wheatley

Assistant Chief of EMS