Recognizing unprecedented challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, clinicians and researchers at the Yale Department of Emergency Medicine (DEM) along with Information Technology Services at Yale New Haven Health System (YNHHS), rapidly deployed innovative technology solutions to decrease the need for personal protective equipment (PPE) while augmenting patient care capabilities.
Results of their findings were reported in the November 4 edition of the journal Applied Clinical Informatics. The article, “Inpatient Telehealth Tools to Enhance Communication and Decrease Personal Protective Equipment Consumption during Disaster Situations: A Case Study during the COVID-19 Pandemic,” presents and describes their experiences evaluating and implementing inpatient telehealth technologies in a large health care system. Their goal was to not only reduce the use of PPE but to enhance personal communication between health care workers and their patients.
Because of the overwhelming patient surge during the spring, which required large amounts of PPE, physicians assessed consumer products that could address interactions within the health system. Their study concluded that the large-scale setup and distribution of consumer devices is feasible for inpatient telehealth encounters. Their experience highlights both operational barriers and potential solutions for health systems looking to preserve PPE and improve vital communication.
One of the lead study authors, DEM Informatics Fellow Shawn Y. Ong, MD, underscores the significance of the findings. “As cases of COVID-19 continue to surge,” he says, “these findings are important for health care organizations nationwide. These measures increase the safety of frontline health care workers while providing increased capability to deliver care.”
These findings are important for health care organizations nationwide. These measures increase the safety of frontline health care workers while providing increased capability to deliver care.
Shawn Y. Ong, MD
Comments from clinicians were overwhelmingly positive. “Our ICU nurses felt a large sense of relief with the technology since they now had a way to communicate from inside repurposed rooms with heavy wooden doors and only one small window,” said one nurse manager at Yale New Haven Hospital.
The study authors concluded that technology can enable more efficient and compassionate care for thousands of patients infected with COVID-19, including in situations that involve larger patient populations and increased patient isolation.
Authors from DEM and YNHH include Shawn Y. Ong, Lisa Stump, Matthew Zawalich, Lisa Edwards, Glynn Stanton, Michael Matthews, and Allen L. Hsiao.