Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, consultancy GE Healthcare has been providing technology expertise to clients in order to help them rapidly adapt to the extended crisis. Recently this saw the firm help Oregon Health & Science University assist 60 hospitals in Oregon with the management of bed and ventilator allocation – using an integrated, real-time data sharing facility.
Since the advent of the coronavirus pandemic, many afflicted nations have quickly seen their hospitals swamped, and struggling to meet demand for beds or ventilators. The US was no exception to this when the virus hit the nation in March, due to the sheer volume of anticipated infections.
In order to address the situation, the Mission Control team of Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) approached GE Healthcare Partners, with the aim of using real-time analytics provided by its Command Centers to track bed and ventilator vacancy across all of Oregon.
GE Healthcare’s Command Centers business unit was established in 2008, and offers tech solutions for caregivers globally, aiming to simplify and improve care delivery. The central principle is “real-time healthcare” – a process where vast pools of actionable data is collected and distributed to relevant professionals, where and when they need it. Controlling this integrated caregiving process via a centralised system is the ‘Command Center’.
Putting this experience to work, within weeks, GE helped ensure that 90% of all hospitals across Oregon – including 60 facilities – were keyed into a shared, real-time data center. The Oregon Capacity System now helps track more than 7,300 beds and 800 ventilators, while the information is refreshed every five minutes. This translates into more than 4 million data points per day. All hospitals can access the system via a website, which uses a display similar to an airport arrival and departure board.
According to Jeff Terry, Global CEO of GE Clinical Command Centers, much about the new system deals in the extraordinary. It promotes speed and better decision-making, even amid the complexity of the development process. Most of the 60 participating hospitals operate on different IT systems, which made digitally collating the data a tremendous challenge.
“We were able to create a method to extract that data … that is fast to set up and does not include any PHI [patient health information). It’s low risk, which was very important to getting the hospitals on board,” he explained.
On the high degree of cooperation among hospitals this fosters, Terry added, “The idea that health systems will be so transparent with their peers is revolutionary. On a day-to-day basis, big health systems are sort of 'frenemies' – they all collaborate a bit, but they also all compete a bit. The fact that everyone came together in Oregon and did this was a big deal, and it also created a North Star.”
Following success in Oregon, GE Healthcare was approached by three hospitals in Florida to develop a similar system, which was implemented at the end of September – but this is just one of several instances where GE Healthcare has been involved in pandemic response. GE Healthcare’s Command Center has also been gaining interest from hospitals and health network worldwide, including several in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, GE Healthcare Partners publishes a daily digest of worldwide Covid-19 cases, keeping track of contamination rates and fatality rates across all countries globally. The numbers tell a worrying story for the Middle East, specifically over the last few weeks. The most recent spike in cases was driven by Bahrain and Israel – which had more new daily cases in early September than any country in the Middle East or Europe.
At the same time, several other Middle Eastern nations also featured in the top 50 around the world when it comes to cases and fatalities. As the surge in cases continues, technology-driven solutions as seen in Oregon will be crucial for the management of the pandemic across the region.
Sourced from Consultancy.me