Technology is necessarily a large part of COVID-19 response planning, and health system IS departments have had to quickly shift from day-to-day needs and projects to an urgent focus on critical needs related to COVID-19. It is imperative that organizations ensure that they are organized around three essential priorities:

1. Enhance screening and reduce exposure
2. Protect healthcare personnel and facilitate necessary staffing
3. Support best-practice management of COVID-19 patients

Health systems’ responses to this pandemic require partnership and close collaboration between operations, analytics and IS, as well as a standardized, coordinated and disciplined approach. As a nation, we also need to constantly learn from each other. This checklist compiles many of the currently known technology-related needs for health system COVID-19 response. Some health systems have likely considered or implemented a number of these; others may not be as far along. While the timing and priority of needs across the country will vary and each organization will need to have a customized approach, the majority of these items will need to be considered by most health systems to facilitate best possible outcomes.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE CHECKLIST

if you have questions about or additions to the checklist, please let us know.

Sources

1. Zhu N, Zhang D, Wang W, et al. A Novel Coronavirus from Patients with Pneumonia in China, 2019. N Engl J Med. 2020. doi:10.1056/nejmoa2001017
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Coronavirus (COVID-19) https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus. Accessed March 25, 2020
3. Lurie N, Carr BG. The role of telehealth in the medical response to disasters. JAMA Intern Med. 2018. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.1314
4. Chopra V, Toner E, Waldhorn R, Washer L. How Should U.S. Hospitals Prepare for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)? Ann Intern Med. 2020; doi:10.7326/M20-090
5. Reeves, Jeffery J., et al. Rapid Response to COVID-19: Health Informatics Support for Outbreak Management in an Academic Health System, JAIMA Advance -Article, Accessed March 25, 2020
6. COVID-19 Response Actions and Recommendations, UW Medicine IT Services, Version 1.5, March 11, 2020
7. Landi, Heather, Geisinger, UPMC among health systems fast-tracking tech, telehealth projects for COVID-19, Fierce Healthcare, March 23, 2020
8. Defending Against COVID-19 Cyber Scams, CISA, March 6, 2020
9. Mukhi, Rahul, Carroll, Katherine M., Kolodner, Jonathan S., Managing Cyber Risk During COVID-19 Response, Clearly Cybersecurity and Privacy Watch, March 16, 2020

Authors

Tonya Edwards, MD
Principal
[email protected]