COVID19 is not only a clinical problem; it is shared and ongoing
In many conversations, we focus on the clinical implications of treating COVID19. Not taking away anything from the tremendous efforts of the front-line caregivers, what HSi has experienced with this pandemic is how much COVID has impacted all areas within a health system. Whether it is from clinicians to revenue cycle operations to business intelligence specialists, COVID has required rapid action and support across all areas of an organization.
HSi has had a front seat to many of these system impacts working side-by-side, literally and virtually, with our clients as they navigate this unprecedented time in recent history. HSi’s consultants have been involved from the very beginning. One consultant was part of getting the initial beds built out in the EHR for anticipated overflow needs while another built the first order set for the COVID protocol for the hospital with whom she worked. Separate from the EHR build and support space, yet still in IT, numerous consultants were tasked with building management dashboards to help manage COVID Command Centers, still others were used to assess and monitor system capacity across care sites and acuities. More consultants were asked to very quickly build data extracts for new mandatory reporting requirements to local and state reporting entities.
Some of HSi’s consultants, working in leadership roles both formal and informal, had greater involvement in the day-to-day management. Decisions being made on remote work, space issues, plexiglass placement, workflow changes, policy adherence, and monitoring regulatory requirements quickly became just another problem to solve as they worked their way through the day. Others were providing data to lab material suppliers as their organizations managed the ongoing need for this critically important supply chain.
And that is the key point. COVID is not something only requiring an initial response and/or plan and then the health system is all set to manage their COVID response. It is the downstream impacts, not only from the initial hit, but the unending implications we will see well into the future. Our consultants have pointed out, through some of their own contributions to their clients, the planning and considerations organizations have needed to make. Items such as monitoring the number of canceled and rescheduled appointments, evaluation of the volumes of face-to-face consultations and organization-wide metric creation for watching volumes of Virtual and In-Person patient visits, and automating workflows they initially thought were going to be for the short-term as they become commonplace.
Organizations also need to continue to consider how to manage patient satisfaction through all of this. Simple things like patients now checking in by Kiosk would seem to be straightforward and a patient satisfier. Reporting has been created by HSi consultants to see how long it takes to check in and how many of the attempts to do so are successful.
Whatever the need an organization has around managing their response to COVID or the downstream implications, HSi has proven to have the talent, and the trust of the clients we work with, to handle these critical activities at a moment’s notice. HSi wants to help, however we can, to support your organization as we continue to adjust to the world now including COVID-19 and how it has affected our health systems, the delivery of care, and most importantly, the patients served.
