Back in early April, Southwest Georgia was the unlikely location of the world’s fourth-hottest hotspot for COVID-19. Here at Phoebe Putney Health System, the sole provider in this semi-rural corner of the state, we saw our coronavirus patient admissions skyrocket from one to 150 in late March. You may have seen Scott Steiner, our CEO, on CNN, calling attention to Phoebe’s dire need for personal protective equipment after clinicians burned through a six-month supply within a week.

When COVID-19 was declared a national health emergency in March 2020, healthcare providers pivoted from typical day-to-day activities to focus on responding to the pandemic. We suddenly had to manage patient care remotely to prevent exposure to the virus, and patients needed to adjust to having less access to regular doctor visits. At the same time, many people were dealing with added stressors, such as lost jobs and insurance coverage, as well as the isolation and uncertainty of life during a pandemic. It shouldn’t be a surprise that as COVID-19 surges across the country, behavioral and mental health issues are surging as well.

2020 has taught us many things, to say the least. Looking ahead, we can leverage what we’ve learned to help propel us into a more patient-centric and sustainable healthcare system. This is especially true for how we choose to move forward with digital health strategies, driven by patient expectations and provider needs, not just in Canada but around the globe. 

With the COVID-19 pandemic surging, healthcare organizations are tasked with the ongoing challenge of providing sufficient testing for their communities. Lawrence General Hospital (Lawrence, MA) is located in one of the hardest hit cities in Massachusetts with over 8,400 positive cases. As a leading healthcare provider in the region, their staff put together a plan to implement drive-thru testing that now tests over 1,400 patients per day and provides a model for other organizations to follow.

Even as the COVID-19 pandemic has changed so many aspects of life one thing has remained: The dedication and creativity of healthcare professionals to respond to the ongoing threat and continue to provide care for their patients.

With the flu season upon us and the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to surge, healthcare organizations now face an unprecedented challenge. As medical resources are stretched to capacity, the ability to quickly identify the appropriate level of care and safely, but efficiently, move patients through the system, is of critical importance. Frontline workers need the guidance to successfully evaluate patients and transition them to post-acute levels of care in order to avoid occupancy challenges many have faced throughout the pandemic. 

Recently, Interlace Health had the privilege of hosting and presenting with a group of health IT executives from MEDITECH, Salesforce, and CereCore. The exclusive virtual roundtable discussion focused on their experiences leading through the pandemic, strategies for ensuring a safe return to work, and thoughts on what the future of care delivery might look like. It was a remarkable “inside look” into how several leading organizations are responding to the unprecedented challenges we’re facing in the healthcare IT industry.

At the peak of the coronavirus surge in Massachusetts, I took a leave of absence from my position as a Marketing Solutions Specialist to care for COVID-19 patients. I’m a young nurse with an active license and felt I had a responsibility to help my community. Volunteering at Boston Hope Medical Center (BHMC), the field hospital constructed in the Convention and Exhibition Center, gave me the opportunity to make a difference as this poorly understood pandemic raged on. Little did I know, the experience would provide unique insight into the power of a well-designed EHR in managing the turmoil surrounding clinical care during a public health crisis.

Managing big data is essential to organizational efficiency and patient safety, especially in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fully integrated with MEDITECH’s EHR, Business and Clinical Analytics (BCA) provides clinicians and decision makers with a single source of truth for critical information, giving staff real-time access to metrics that uncover insights to help them provide the best care possible.

Here are 3 success stories showing how healthcare organizations have used BCA to ensure staff are equipped with the right data and resources to provide quality care.

For our latest Thought Leader podcast, I spoke with Dr. Andy Burchett, CMIO of Avera Health, about his organization’s rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic.