Several things go into giving an effective HEAR report. The purpose of a HEAR report is to let the hospital know:

• The type of patient you are bringing in
• The resources or type of room they may need
• How quickly they need to be seen by a doctor on arrival

Your HEAR report allows the hospital to allocate resources and staff to the highest-priority patients. If you do not give them an adequate or accurate picture, they cannot triage the department effectively.

Aspects of the perfect HEAR report include:

1. Know what you will say before you key the mic or dial the phone
   1. You must plan what you say so you do not waste time. Remember, time is valuable and needs to be used efficiently, especially if the patent is critical. Not only does knowing what you will say save time, but it also makes you sound competent. You should have a format that you use every time so that you do not even have to think about what you are going to say, you just change the key information.

1. Be brief, preferably 30 seconds or less.
   • The HEAR report is not the time that you should be sharing everything that is wrong with the patient. It should include:
     • Who you are
     • Coming in emergently or non-emergently
     • How far away you are
     • Age of patient
     • Type of patient you are bringing
     • The patient’s chief complaint
     • What you have done for the patient
     • Patient's vital signs
   • You may also add in key details as necessary, such as:
     • Is the patient on blood thinners?
     • Has the patient had a loss of consciousness?
     • The patient is a trauma
     • Last seen well time if they are a potential stroke patient 
     • The leads you see an elevation in if they are a STEMI patient
   • This is not a full report, it is the highlights. The hospital knows if this patient is or has the potential to quickly be sick or not sick. Do they need a trauma bay, or can they go to a room further away? Can one nurse handle the intake, or do they need several? Can they wait to see a doctor, or should there be one at the bedside?
2. Do not give any personal information over the radio.
   • Do not share the following information: name, date of birth, address, or other identifying information that could lead to people finding out who the patient is. You can provide initials, age, sex, and whether or not they are coming from the home, a care facility, or another doctor’s office. This information allows the patient to be matched with documents that may have been sent over already. If the patient is a direct admit, this information should also be provided to the ED to alert the receiving floor.

     As a brief aside, during the transportation of a transgender patient, it is important to determine if their gender marker has legally been changed from male to female or female to male. You will use whatever their legal marker is when you click that section of the chart. However, you must use their appropriate gender in your narrative and when giving your report. For example, during your radio report, if they are female to male, but their legal paperwork still says female, you will say you are transporting a transgender male. However, if their legal paperwork says male, you will say male patient. Remember to be respectful of your patients. This is something that may not have been (or will not be) addressed in your program or internship but is important to understand before you enter the field.

     Lastly, it is important to know the protocols in your area. Do you have alerts that you give to the hospital for certain patients, such as trauma, stroke, STEMI, or sepsis? Are those to be given over the radio or the phone? Should you request a doctor, nurse, or both to listen to it? This is very important because by following protocol, the hospital can better prepare for your patient’s arrival and give the patient the best possible care. Your HEAR report is the first step in preparing the hospital to adequately care for the patient.

Here are some sample radio reports:

            ____ this is Medic ___ coming to you C1, we’re 10 minutes out with a 78 yo F coming from a care facility. Pt has a chief complaint of abdominal pain with vomiting. Last set of vitals is HR- 80, BP- 136/74, RR- 18, SpO2- 96%RA, CBG- 130, T- 36.8 C, 12 lead- sinus with no ST elevations or depressions. We have established a 20g IV to the right forearm and given the patient 4mg of Zofran IV with improvement. Again we are 10 minutes out; any questions or orders?

            ____ this is Medic ____ coming to you C3, with a trauma alert, can I get a doctor and nurse to the radio? We are 15 minutes out with a 25 yo M chief complaint of open right femur fracture and bruising to the abdomen after a 20-foot fall from a roof; pt did not experience a loss of consciousness, GCS- 15, is not on blood thinners, pt is c-collared and backboarded, 18 g IV to bilateral ACs with 100 mcg of Fentanyl and 1L NS TKO, last set of vitals: HR- 116, BP- 94/52, RR- 22, SpO2- 98%RA,  again we are 15 out, any questions or orders?

Again the key to a perfect HEAR report is to communicate the key information coherently and concisely in ideally 30 seconds or less. We want to give the hospital a heads-up on what we are bringing in so they can adequately prepare.