UH Expands ESO Service Arrangement to Deliver Prehospital Intelligence Across Northern Ohio

CLEVELAND — University Hospitals (UH), the Cleveland-based health system serving patients across northern Ohio, has expanded its partnership with ESO, a leading data services and software provider for fire departments, EMS, hospitals and government agencies, to bring ESO Prehospital Intelligence™ capabilities to fire departments and EMS agencies that transport patients to UH facilities. The implementation is the first of its kind in Ohio and builds on UH’s deployment of ESO Health Data Exchange (HDE) that has connected UH's 21 hospitals with more than 300 agencies across 16 counties since July 2025.

ESO HDE connects prehospital clinical data with Epic, UH’s electronic medical record system, and returns discrete clinical data specifically pertaining to the EMS encounter, including lab results, imaging, detailed vitals and procedure notes, to EMS teams. Any EMS organization bringing patients to a UH facility can participate and access pertinent health information for the people they treat.

"EMS crews make decisions in the field that influence the patient’s outcome and shape the entire hospital journey, and historically they learned almost nothing about how those decisions turned out," said José G. Cabañas, MD, MPH, FACHE, system chief medical officer at University Hospitals. "Empowering the EMS-hospital relationship in real-time with bi-directional data facilitates a shared understanding of the patient. That shared view improves care today, and it is the foundation for the predictive work ahead."

ESO Prehospital Intelligence, the only solution that connects real-time EMS data and prehospital predictions across the emergency care continuum, extends HDE’s impact. Crews will now receive fit-for-purpose outcome summaries on the patients they have cared for, along with outcomes-based continuing education credits to drive further improvement in quality.

“ESO’s outcomes have fostered a culture of performance, accountability, and continuous improvement throughout our organization,” said Raymond Pace, fire chief for the Howland Township Fire Department. “Our paramedics are committed to exceeding the standard of care for every patient they encounter. By providing meaningful patient outcome data, ESO provides accountability for our providers’ clinical decisions while allowing them to evaluate and validate the accuracy of their EMS impressions and treatment plans. This feedback reinforces sound clinical judgment, promotes professional growth, and strengthens the quality and consistency of care we provide to our patients.”

UH is also bringing ESO's prearrival indicators into hospital operations. Those indicators surface estimated acuity, likelihood of admission, anticipated resource needs and expected length of stay using prehospital data, giving UH teams time to prepare, forecast bed needs and mobilize staff earlier than ever before.

“The availability of outcome data for prehospital providers has proven to be a game-changing development,” said Philip Corpora, captain of the Beachwood Fire & Rescue Department. “We now have the ability to see if our clinical impression was accurate and our treatments beneficial. This leads to better patient care in the prehospital setting and closes the information loop that has existed for many years. Prehospital Intelligence is the next logical step in helping solve a nationwide problem—ambulances waiting in overcrowded emergency departments. If the hospital can understand the needs and acuity of incoming patients early on, they can arrange for in-hospital beds and staffing so emergency department boarding can be avoided.”

"University Hospitals’ commitment to supporting all EMS agencies with HDE and Prehospital Intelligence unlocks the full value of prehospital data and EMS collaboration to drive system performance," said Brent Myers, MD, MPH, chief medical officer at ESO. "They are shifting their teams from reactive to proactive and predictive. EMS not only has a feedback loop on patients transported, but hospitals are able to forecast, plan, prioritize, resource and develop programs that genuinely improve outcomes through EMS engagement.”

For more information about UH, visit universityhospitals.org. To learn more about ESO Health Data Exchange, Prehospital Intelligence and its capabilities, visit eso.com.

Media Contacts:

For University Hospitals Health System,

Maia Belay-Roberts

Maia.Belay-Roberts@UHhospitals.org

For ESO,

Hope Giachinta

Red Fan Communications

eso@redfancommunications.com

737-280-8783