This post originally appeared on the CereCore blog.
We are at an unprecedented time in our history, and much of the impact of COVID-19 has not been experienced in our lifetime. Most health systems have well-established crisis and disaster plans that encompasses IT, but these plans haven’t been tested to this degree until now.
This article is intended to provide basic information with regard to initiating and adjusting these plans to deal with the current situation in our nation. Our recommendations include the following sections:
A command center allows a coordinated response to COVID-19 events and activities, such as those offered in the CDC Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19 Hospital Preparedness Assessment tool. It also establishes a central location for all communications to be coordinated 24/7. The command centers will also be used for Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery programs and will coordinate related emergency management activities.
The command center will be accountable for establishing policies and procedures when dealing with internal employees, patients and address technological needs. CereCore also recommends that organizations consider the following actions:
One of the primary responsibilities of the IT department is to ensure stability of systems and reducing activities that impact the availability of the systems, such as upgrades and patches that are non-essential to the operation. Senior management should prioritize all IT activities underway and shut down all projects and activities that are non-essential and redirect all staff to dealing with COVID-19 activities.
This is an ‘All Hands on Deck’ moment for IT, and teams must be able to respond to the needs of the organization in a prioritized manner.
During these uncertain times, the best tactic to ease concerns of patients and the general public is to increase communication.
The CDC continues to update their guidance and resource documents for the community, and properly educating patients on how your organization is handling these protocols and what patients should do can minimize the risk of transmitting the illness. Add appropriate messages to the internet and intranet web sites, EHR systems, patient portals and social media platforms to facilitate the communication.
The communication should include instructions on symptoms of the illness, how to self-screen and instructions on what to do if they demonstrate some of the symptoms including the risks associated with traveling to countries that are impacted with COVID-19.
It is a good practice to offer push notifications to patients if they choose alerts of the latest information about COVID-19. It is critical to also educate the resources at the call centers to be able to address the questions from patients and to expect a dramatic increase to the call centers. One of the main objectives of a good communication plan is to maintain the communication, make sure it is updated, accurate and timely.
To do that, CereCore recommends the following actions:
In order to minimize the exposure to your clinical and administrative resources, accelerate the availability of telemedicine of your organization.
This would include remote screening of patients or the ability to screen or test them in isolation as needed. There are simple steps to take to facilitate telemedicine by ensuring adequate bandwidth at locations, availability of video conferencing, integrating teleconferencing into major systems such as an EHR, and educating staff on how to leverage these systems in conjunction with their own devices.
Finally, and especially if you have not rolled out telemedicine, contact the right vendors to expedite the rollout and ensure ample licenses based on the population you serve and the resources at the hospitals.
A majority of the resources that work within shared services, such as IT, purchasing, finance, etc. can work remotely.
To reduce the risks to your employees, you should consider initiating telecommuting for these employees as soon as possible. To do this, your organization needs the following:
Although we recommend having most of the non-essential IT support work remotely, we also recommend having ample at-the-elbow support in the wards and other critical locations in case clinical staff members need immediate help.
Time is of the essence, and having the right resources will expedite services or access to the right information. You should ensure the IT staff is authorized to provide laptops, Workstations on Wheels (WOW), and other technologies as needed to expedite access.
One of the most effective means that IT can assist the organization is to track the right metrics and making these reports available to all key staff, as well as support COVID-19 cases reported to the CDC.
Examples of the types of metrics that need to be tracked are:
The recommendations above are some of the activities that IT can undertake to assist in this difficult time. In addition, IT organizations should review and augment their current disaster recovery and business continuity plans in light of the learnings from our current scenario.
CereCore remains committed to support health systems with IT and EHR support services, and to lend technical expertise in any way we can to ensure patient care across our nation.
Read how MEDITECH is supporting healthcare organizations during the coronavirus outbreak.