Healthcare IT has played a significant part in helping healthcare providers manage the COVID-19 crisis, with many innovations being implemented on short notice and at rapid speed. Here are some examples of IT innovations that have been used successfully.
Automation and Bots
At the start of the pandemic, communities around the U.S. rushed to set up remote testing facilities. Hospitals’ IT departments have played a big role in implementing the technologies needed to operate them.
In March in south Florida, Memorial Healthcare System staff, working with the Florida National Guard, set up a drive-through testing site at C.B. Smith Park in Broward County within a matter of days.
“Around day four, we put a lot of the technology in place,” recalls Jeffrey Sturman, senior vice president/CIO, and an ACHE Member. While setting up the site, the Memorial Healthcare team quickly identified that a paper-driven scheduling, testing and verification process could be enhanced through automation.
“We went from three hours plus for patients to receive drive-through testing to less than 25 minutes,” says Aurelio Fernandez III, FACHE, president/CEO.
In addition, the health system uses a “bot” to reduce the amount of time clinicians spend manually calling patients with test results. “The bot automatically calls patients with negative test results,” Sturman says. “Upwards of 85 or 90% of patients are negative, and it takes a huge number of resources to call each patient.” Patients who test positive are called by a clinician to discuss their personal next steps.
Similar technology is helping Memorial Healthcare System set up a contactless registration process designed to make patients feel more comfortable returning to healthcare facilities in person. “We’ve created a bot and some workflows so patients don’t have to sit in a crowded waiting room or come into the hospital until it’s time for them to be seen for their visit,” Sturman says. The health system plans to eventually use geolocation capabilities within its EMR to alert staff automatically that patients who have location services turned on within their smart devices are nearby the facility.
Data and Analytics
Use of data and analytics also has proven critical during the pandemic.
“Our data and analytics platforms provided real-time sources of truth about what was happening in our hospitals and across the health system, state and region, which informed and helped us monitor our response,” says Lisa Stump, senior vice president, information systems/CIO, Yale New Haven (Conn.) Health System, and an ACHE Member. “They also enabled sound predictive modeling.”
As at other organizations, keeping track of valuable personal protective equipment has been key at Memorial Healthcare System, and data has been instrumental in monitoring equipment levels.
“Our data models allowed us to project the actual burn rate of all this equipment, and as a result, we ended up buying more inventory ahead of time,” Fernandez says.
The health system has also created databases to monitor and track COVID-19-positive patients. For example, it’s using data and predictive modeling to help monitor patients coming to the health system from nursing homes, in order to avoid spread of the virus. “We load the information into a database, and if we discover a nursing home with numerous cases, we will deploy personnel to conduct an evaluation,” Fernandez says.
Telework Capabilities
Allowing staff to be able to work virtually has been one priority for health systems, as has communicating safely with communities.
“Our core network infrastructure and virtual desktop solutions allowed us to move thousands of employees, in a matter of days, to work remotely from the safety of their homes,” says Stump. “Tele-collaboration facilitated important human connections from a safe social distance, from small meetings to large employee town halls to public open forums hosting thousands of participants at a time.”
Better Use of EMRs
Taking advantage of resources already at their fingertips, such as the tools and capabilities embedded in health systems’ existing EMRs, also has proven invaluable in the fight against COVID-19.
“Our EMR allowed us to disseminate care protocols and guidelines at the point of care as our understanding of the disease and its treatments were evolving,” says Stump.
For Altru Health System in Grand Forks, N.D., having a strong EMR foundation made it easier for the organization to set up in-room monitoring of patients via tablets, according to executive vice president/CIO Mark Waind. The health system helped create similar virtual setups for some of its regional partners to help safely monitor patients in nursing homes. The organization plans to leverage even more features in its EMR going forward, such as COVID home monitoring and a symptom checker module, according to Waind.
“If we can harness all the tools available to us, we really can control costs and efficiency while delivering quality,” says Altru President Steven Weiser, MD, an ACHE Member.
Jessica D. Squazzo is a Chicago-area-based writer and editor.
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