Digital care call for patients

Because of the covid-19 epidemic, patient calls from hospitalised covid-19 patients by the means of the room’s call-string were challenging and time-consuming because of the strict requirements relating to protective gear, which takes time to put on and off again.

Alle

PROJECT PERIOD

Start: June 2020
End: March 2021

It is a well-known challenge from isolation wards in general, but covid-19 has given rise to a focused effort in this area, as the number of isolation wards could potentially be quite high.

The patient call is a general challenge – and not just regarding isolation – because the staff does not know the cause for the patient call. They have to stop ongoing patient contact or their current assignment in order to check up on the cause of the call.

AIM

The aim of this project was to develop and test a digital care call, where the patient could specify the reason for their call by means of a tablet by the bedside. The staff would then receive the call on a smartphone. A specified digital call would enable the staff to make a qualified and substantiated decision about the priority of assignments, and at the same time save time on the use of protective gear and related extra work procedures. The solution would also ensure the staff gained an overview of who is solving which assignment and that the patient would get appropriate feedback as soon as the call was registered.

RESULTS

The evaluation of the project showed that the staff saw potential in digital care call and similar technologies, but that the technology is not yet ready for implementation. The project has provided a lot of experience with both technology, workflows and patients’ prerequisites for using the solution and a number of proposals for improving the technology, eg more icons and integration with existing smartphones.

The full evaluation report can be obtained by contacting innovation consultant Malte Kongstad Deleuran.

The project was a part of the project Digital Vision, which is implemented at the Department of Gastroenterology at Odense University Hospital in the period 2019-2021.

PARTNERS

The project was carried out at the Department of Internal Medicine and Acute Medicine and the Department of Gastroenterology at Odense University Hospital in cooperation with the company MedWare.