As hospitals begin to return to their new normal, patients and visitors with COVID are still going to be coming into the hospital. The wide range of symptoms that individuals with COVID experience make it impossible to screen everyone before they enter the facility. It is only a matter of time before a patient gets admitted without isolation procedures and is diagnosed with COVID. This sets off a series of questions that are traditionally nearly impossible to answer. Which providers came in contact with the contagious patient, and how often? Do any providers need to be isolated or monitored closely? Which providers are safe to return to work? Unfortunately, answering these questions without an Internet of Things (IoT) system in place can be nearly impossible.
Facilities could save time and money if they were able to pinpoint exactly who had contact with the patient and how often. With this information, hospital leadership could make informed decisions about to who to quarantine and perhaps more importantly who can return to work.
The Clean Hands – Safe Hands system automatically captures data related to provider visits for each patient. Facilities can then leverage the network of sensors and advanced analytics to provide detailed information about staff exposure.
In the graphic below, each bubble represents a provider. The size of the bubble indicates the number of interactions with the patient. Larger bubbles mean more patient interactions. In the image, Nurse 2, Nurse 3, and Nurse 5 had the most interactions with the patient. Thus, they had the greatest risk of exposure. They likely need to be tested and possibly quarantined. MD 1 might need to be quarantined as well, but the others can likely continue working under close observation. This Performance Bubble Plot™ allows leadership to making informed staffing decisions at a glance.
For a more in-depth view, Clean Hands – Safe Hands customers can pull up contact tracing information for each room. The image below shows a list and pie chart of each provider that interacted with the contagious patient. The chart makes it clear that Courtney Schuppe had the most interactions with the patient. Unit leaders can take this information and make decisions accordingly.
Many Clean Hands – Safe Hands customers are already using exposure data to identify staff members who were likely exposed to COVID-19, allowing them to temporarily remove them from the schedule until they can be tested and complete a self-quarantine, if necessary.
Perhaps even more importantly, this data allows leadership to quickly identify which providers were not exposed to the patient. At a time when provider shortages are a growing concern, identifying which providers are likely safe to continue working is imperative. It is certainly not practical to quarantine a whole shift of providers who might have been exposed, and technology makes these determinations easy.
If you’re interested in gaining critical insights to keep your facility running efficiently, download our free whitepaper or just contact us to schedule a quick chat.
