How Virtual Care Keeps Pregnant Patients Safer From COVID-19

Last week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a large amount of data suggesting that: Pregnant patient There is an increased risk of serious illness associated with COVID-19.

In light of the statistics, the CDC advised that measures to prevent coronavirus infection should be emphasized for pregnant people and their families. Telemedicine and virtual care with natural distances could be one such tool.

It may seem counterintuitive, but given the pragmatic approach taken by obstetricians and gynecologists, telemedicine requires less direct exposure and is vulnerable during pregnancy. It can act as a bridge between people and their providers.

Matthew Sappern, CEO and President of PeriGen, said: Healthcare IT News The nature of labor and labor creates “unique challenges” for clinicians.

“Baby will not postpone coming,” Sappern said. HIMS STV Interview Earlier this year. “I think that really made life difficult for clinicians in these healthcare systems.”

When it comes to staff and patient safety, Sappern said Healthcare IT News This week, remote remote monitoring will be available in the facility as a kind of hub-and-spoke model, allowing clinicians at central monitoring stations to track patient health and safety.

“There are several ways I’ve seen that our solution helps with this pandemic,” Sappern said. “In the first surge, there were a lot of nurses who were actually experienced … they couldn’t go to bedside because they had an existing condition or were caregivers,” he continued. ..

Rather than temporarily dismissing nurses, that is, losing the clinical expertise they can provide, some clients have set up nurses at central monitoring stations, Sappern said. That way, you can separate yourself from the patient while providing guidance to less vulnerable personnel.

Sappan said this style of remote monitoring could isolate patients with potential COVID, exposed patients, or at high risk for reasons other than pregnancy. He pointed out that in rural areas nurses can provide guidance to other facilities without having to travel. This also reduces the potential COVID-19 epidemic.

PeriGen’s clinical decision support tools can also help you quickly alert your provider about potential adverse consequences. This is useful in low-staff environments.

“Such technologies that give gradual insights not only help provide or identify opportunities for intervention at the right time, but they are just next to the bedside and when they are at stake. Technology really helps. ” Sappan.

Recently released CDC statistics show that after adjusting for race, age, and underlying illness, pregnant people are more admitted to the intensive care unit, receive invasive ventilation, and extracorporeal membrane oxygen than non-pregnant people. It has been shown that it is very likely that you will receive a type artificial lung or die.

According to the CDC, the increased risk was particularly pronounced among Asians and Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islands. Given the potential for remote patient monitoring, Sappern said the next steps could include US Food and Drug Administration approval for home-based tools such as fetal heart rate recording.

“We want to move to more outpatient space,” Sappan said.

This is the path doctors at the Israeli Sheva Medical Center are heading towards the Women’s Health Innovation Center.

As part of ARC Innovation Center, WHIC clinicians are working to launch pilots to focus most of their pregnancy care at home. WHIC is possible by inviting multiple vendors to offer options for applying their technology to the treatment of pregnant patients without the need for patients and their fetuses to physically enter the hospital. We aim to provide as many ratings as possible.

WHIC Director OB-GYN and high-risk pregnancy expert Dr. Avi Tsur Healthcare IT News Its gestational diabetes demonstrates an excellent use case for home monitoring.

Patients with gestational diabetes usually “must come to the clinic frequently” for fetal ultrasound and fetal monitoring, Tsuru said.

Through next month’s pilot launch, Tsuru said, “Instead of coming to the clinic, you can stay home and visit online.”

For home visits, the patient must use a sphygmomanometer cuff and a fetal monitor, both connected to a clinical platform. The patient also takes a picture of the urinalysis stick for the clinician to interpret and sweeps the ultrasound in his stomach. “They don’t have to be sonographers and there are no technical issues,” Tsur said.

“That’s it!” Tsuru said. In doing so, “we replaced the 4-hour visit without risk of COVID-19 infection with a 30-minute visit.”

Of course, if the need arises, the WHIC team will ask the patient to make an appointment directly. Telemedicine As many supporters saidIt complements the treatment in the office and is not a complete replacement.

Still, Tsuru emphasizes that telemedicine and telemedicine have technical potential.

“There are only a few good things that have come from the COVID-19 epidemic, one of which is definitely remote care. It turns out that we can treat many patients at home, so we waste time and get infected again. I’ll take you to a hospital where you may. “

Kat Jercich is a Senior Editor of Healthcare IT News.
twitter: @kjercich
Email: [email protected]
Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS Media.