COVID-19 Healthcare Communications for the Long Haul: Testing, Tracing, & Getting People Working
The past several weeks have driven home how reliant we are on our complex healthcare system. As a doctor, I have long known this in my gut, but when the system is taxed to the extreme, we all begin to see the fragility of this critical industry.
The system is only as strong as its weakest component. It needs the right amount of PPE or basic safeguards cannot be maintained. It needs adequate staffing to offset when significant numbers of personnel are exposed or ill. It needs to adapt to use modern tools such as telehealth visits in place of in-person appointments. These have been the recent nightly news stories. But for those of us in Health IT, there is another story waiting to be told. The challenges we need to address today to be ready for tomorrow.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema
As we get past the dire emergency phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are entering a long-term phase that will require not just Testing and Tracing, but also good coordination and communication between public health, regional command centers, health systems, physician practices, testing facilities, home health, analytics systems and many other healthcare-related personnel. The better the coordination and communication, the better treatment will be for those who become ill, and the more efficient and effective the recovery will be as we get people back to work.
There is much we can do to quickly improve how we support caregivers and public health officials, if only we have the will. And I believe that COVID-19 has more than demonstrated that we need to find our collective will.
Healthcare Communications Isn’t What It Should Be
As consumers, we take for granted that Internet and cell phone apps can power almost anything. Reading the news, sending email anywhere in the world, tracking food delivery, monitoring our diet programs or number of steps. And many people take for granted that healthcare is on the cutting edge in this regard. But it isn’t.
Have you had the chance to watch one of the many recent Public Health COVID briefings? Have you considered the communication and data that is behind each PowerPoint slide? How many cases, where are they located, recovery and death rates, and much more. How is this data gathered in a secure manner that protects patients and ensures privacy?
Beyond initial emergency pandemic response, such as ensuring adequate care equipment, surge medical staff, and supplies, the two most important mitigating components of any pandemic are 1) testing and 2) communications.
Typical early response is characterized by both hasty testing and communications, and both should progress rapidly to encompass all relevant parties, accelerate recovery, and a return toward normal. A critical component for longer-term communications that should be born of the immediate need is the ability to deliver test results, along with relevant medical information about a patient, to the right clinician(s), hospital, test-and-trace team(s), public health command center, and to the analytics engines that will help spot trends and drive additional mitigation strategies.
Both Public Health and Doctors Need to Be “In the Loop”
We at careMESH have heard many stories of public health personnel trying to efficiently locate doctors in their state or region so they can do capacity planning or reach out to retired practitioners to serve in a surge capacity. For example, one county public health official wanted to do capacity planning, but didn’t know how many doctors with which specialties or social workers or other types of caregivers were even in his county, and certainly nothing about similar people in nearby counties whom he might be able to call on for emergency, surge situations.
And, we’ve heard from health departments that the most appropriate way to enable their teams would be with a mobile or web app that could be used in the office or on the road; one that is easy to learn, provides person-to-person messaging and group sharing, and which—most importantly—could be used to engage a patient’s own physician(s) to coordinate care, learn about medical history, and much more.
How can we respond to these needs with an inexpensive method to support recovery?
I can imagine many different models from a highly centralized structure built around a state or regional command center to a web or “mesh” model with minimal central command. In both cases, the key to an efficient recovery will be seamless communication among all relevant parties, in ways that adhere to security and privacy, are naturally complementary and interoperable with Electronic Health Records systems and Health Information Exchanges, keep Public Health and CDC notifications flowing, and which naturally provide data for powerful analytics.
careMESH Wants to Help!
Like many companies, we’ve taken a step back over the past month to consider key industry challenges and how we can make a difference. The first thing that came to mind is the careMESH National Provider Directory, which includes 5.1M individual and organizational listings, so users easily search for Physicians, Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants, and other caregivers across the country.
Why the Directory?
It’s an accurate, intuitive and surprisingly helpful tool.
Searches can be easily conducted against first or last name, zip codes, city names, practice or facility, physician specialty, and much more!
It’s continuously updated from official data sources such as NPPES/NPI, CMS/PECOS, other state and federal databases, and by individual practitioners and organizations who use careMESH services.
If you work in a state or local public health agency and wish you had a National Provider Directory with a simple user interface that would help you find the providers you are looking for, then please Contact Us to get started today.
Please reach out any time by email and know that we are here to make your work easier.
Stay Well,
Peter