Improving patient care and safeguarding workers during the COVID-19 pandemic response
As our world battles a global pandemic, healthcare workers have witnessed patient suffering like no other on the frontlines. Our world’s doctors, nurses, practitioners, technicians, and so many more are risking their lives for the sake of the public. Hospitals are racing for supplies to support our healthcare workers. Masks are being rationed/reused and hand sanitizers are akin to gold. As technology advances, hospitals are rapidly adopting innovative products to ease their workers’ jobs and further protect their lives. Additionally, providers are turning towards Virtual Care Solutions to provide immediate and effective diagnoses for their patients. Here, we’ll observe the companion products being offered by companies like The Joy Factory who are working to ease the transition to telehealth and protect lives from the spread of bacteria/diseases.
What is Telehealth?
As social distancing becomes more prominent in today’s society, the use of virtual visits in healthcare has seen a dramatic increase in usage. For example, Partners Healthcare, a Boston-based non-profit hospital, has seen their virtual visits jump from 1,600 in February to 90,000 in March (Schulte, 2020). Comparably, other healthcare providers have reported similar spikes, with another case in NYC facing up to 5,500 virtual visits in a single day.
This spike in virtual visits can be further explained by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) having issued temporary measures to make it easier for people to enroll and receive medical care through the use of telehealth services (“Telehealth: Delivering Care,” 2020). These temporary measures allow providers to:
- Practice remote care, even across state lines
- Deliver care to both established and new patients
- Conduct telehealth with patients located in their homes and outside of designated rural areas
- Bill for telehealth services (both video and audio-only) as if they were provided in person
With the adoption of telehealth, physicians are also better able to maintain a work-life balance with the option of shifting into telemedicine via a work-from-home model (“Pros and Cons,” 2018). The benefit of this is a reduction in hospital operating costs which consequently allows for a greater budget for other needed supplies. Examples of these include products offered by The Joy Factory, such as:
- Mounts to position the tablets so patients can interact handsfree
- Antimicrobial cases to further protect workers and patients
- Medical carts to optimize patient care and information
The end goal is to have hospitals and other healthcare providers working to keep as many high-risk physicians safely employed away from the frontlines of this pandemic as possible.
Improving Patient Care
Telehealth allows physicians to work with patients without the need to wear significant amounts of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). This use of Virtual Care Solutions allows practitioners to treat their patients virtually with the same level of care. Healthcare providers can implement a humanistic approach as it allows the patient to see the caregiver without any obstructions from PPE.
Benefits arising from telehealth aren’t limited to a work-from-home model, and can also be implemented within hospitals and other healthcare facilities. For example, Harris Health uses their tablets to provide on-demand access to many features for their patients (Martineau, 2020). These include, but are not limited to:
- Interpreters for non-native English-speaking patients
- Patient consultations with pharmacists and dietitians
- Video chats with patients’ family and loved ones
Keeping Families Connected
The use of tablets in hospitals serve a variety of patient benefits. It allows patients to connect with their family members in situations where they may not be able to see them. With Virtual Care Solutions, patients can visually see their family members as well as their providers’ faces. It allows both parties to communicate easily with medical staff either virtually in the hospital, or remotely at home. This is especially effective when patients must be isolated from their families and the public. To further ensure the safety of everyone involved, it’s important to properly equip the tablets needed to prevent the spread of any bacteria/diseases when used. For instance, The Joy Factory offers antimicrobial cases to shield these tablets from any particle growth while also being easily cleanable.
Protecting Our Practitioners
Hospital practitioners are viewed as our world’s heroes as they battle this pandemic on the frontlines to keep their exposed patients alive. It’s every healthcare provider’s duty to ensure that our practitioners are properly equipped and safe to work with these patients. The adoption of telehealth dramatically reduces the exposure and risk of vital healthcare workers to the novel COVID-19 virus. Not only that, it also reduces the amount of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) needed. This is utmost important as it addresses the immediate shortage of PPE.
As an example, in the three weeks since tablets were deployed by Mass General, they made a follow-up statement that their hospital’s use of PPE fell by 50% and helped the hospital cope with the nationwide shortage (Martineau, 2020).
This adoption of telehealth is not meant to be difficult. Companies like The Joy Factory are already working to help streamline the process. The Joy Factory offers:
- MagConnect Mounts to position the tablet in any secured location
- Antimicrobial Cases to contain steady usage of tablets safely and securely
- Medical Carts to allow for instant, portable access to vital information for practitioners performing their rounds
The Joy Factory’s medical-grade products also allow for an easy clean with alcohol wipes and swabs. Most hospital-grade disinfectant wipes with a high alcohol concentration are safe to use. Hospitals can opt for both daily and deep cleaning on schedules that work for them. The ultimate goal is to optimize patient and provider safety through preventing the growth of harmful particles.
For nurses and caregivers, they can also be hands-free from the tablet allowing them to vastly improve patient care. Additionally, select tablets include software that makes them essentially virtual extensions for any hospital’s thousands of nurses (Martineau, 2020). Nurses can then use these tablets to check on and communicate with patients without:
- Donning masks, gloves, and other precious protective gear
- Risking exposing themselves to the virus
Hospital Benefits
A personalized approach is the care that every patient deserves. However, more hospitals deal with national shortages of PPE which inhibits this personalized approach (Minor, 2020). To counteract these roadblocks, new strategies are needed to continue delivering high-touch care. The telehealth approach delivers several benefits:
- It expands patient access to services
- It enhances human connection
- It conserves PPE
These Virtual Care Solutions allow practitioners to monitor and check on their patients virtually. This includes the aspect of at-home monitoring. In this scenario, practitioners would monitor patients that need to stay and isolate themselves in their homes. This can be due to COVID-19 or any number of other personal reasons. With this option, practitioners can assess patients virtually and let them know if they need to physically go to the hospital for further assistance. To streamline this process, The Joy Factory offers mount and case solutions for both the practitioners and patients’ use. On the practitioner’s end, The Joy Factory’s antimicrobial case and mounts can be used to safely monitor the patient from any desired location. Hospitals would deploy similar applications for patients by providing them with a tablet, application, and monitoring equipment.
The adoption of telehealth is cost effective. It provides a less expensive alternative to in-person office visits as well as driving down the rates of no-shows and late appointments (“Pros and Cons,” 2018). The ability to connect quickly online with patients allows physicians to better reinforce treatment adherence. This prevents unnecessary hospital admissions and maintains the patient’s health (“Pros and Cons,” 2018).
Telehealth can expand every hospital’s patient base. It allows physicians to further connect with patients even outside of their geographic region (“Pros and Cons,” 2018). This is especially effective for:
- Remote Patient Monitoring
- Specialist Referral Services
- Primary Care
- Medical Education
- Consumer Medical and Health Info
Not only does telehealth connect hospitals with more patients, but it also helps with staffing. It allows providers that may be immunocompromised or facing other risks to participate in care (Martineau, 2020). Where they were kept away from patients before to protect themselves, they would now be able to participate remotely. Additionally, doctors who were asymptomatic but are quarantined because of COVID-19 exposures are able to contribute again. The Joy Factory’s solutions for antimicrobial cases allows both ends of the users to safely use their devices while on the go or working remotely.
Further Product Specifications to Consider
The Joy Factory is dedicated to helping healthcare providers gain access to companion products that will ensure the added safety for their workers and patients. They offer solutions ranging from mounts, antimicrobial cases, and medical carts that were specifically created to help hospitals, practitioners, and patients receive the best care, quality, and equipment that they deserve.
A brief overview of the additional specifications that The Joy Factory products provide:
- Tablets can be positioned with ergonomics in mind; adjusting height and angles
- High quality material: Aluminum Alloy
- ADA and UL / IEC -60601 Compliance
- MagConnect technology allows for easy and quick tablet attachment & detachment
- Antimicrobial feature to deter growth of bacteria on cases
- Easy-to-clean and sanitize products with minimal gaps, holes, and grooves
- Compatible with standard medical wipes and cleaning materials
- Approved Cleaners:
- Sani-Cloth AF3 Germicidal Disposable Wipes
- CaviWipes Disposable Wipes
- Clorox Healthcare Bleach Germicidal Disposable Wipes
Works Cited
Martineau, Paris. “IPads Are Crucial Health Care Tools in Combating Covid-19.” Wired, 8 Apr. 2020, www.wired.com/story/ipads-crucial-health-tools-combating-covid-19/.
Minor, Lloyd B. “Dean of Stanford Medicine: How Virtual Care Can Make Medicine Even More Human.” Fortune, 10 Apr. 2020, www.fortune.com/2020/04/09/virtual-health-care-telehealth-coronavirus/.
“Pros and Cons of Telehealth: Advantages and Disadvantages for Doctors.” EVisit, 26 May 2018, www.evisit.com/resources/pros-and-cons-telehealth-for-doctors/.
Schulte, Fred. “Coronavirus Fuels Explosive Growth In Telehealth ― And Concern About Fraud.” Kaiser Health News , 22 Apr. 2020, www.khn.org/news/coronavirus-fuels-explosive-growth-in-telehealth-%E2%80%95-and-concern-about-fraud/.
“Telehealth: Delivering Care Safely During COVID-19.” HHS.gov, US Department of Health and Human Services, 7 May 2020, www.hhs.gov/coronavirus/telehealth/index.html.