The second wave of the pandemic has arrived, bringing with it an increase in overburdened hospitals and distraught communities. So, what have we learned? We know hospitals will need to control spread by reducing onsite staff, canceling elective surgeries and routine visits, and quarantining patients as best as they can.
We also know just how brutal high incidents of COVID-19 can be.
The rise of telehealth in 2020 has shown how digital solutions can help us continue to deliver care under extreme conditions, like a pandemic. Trust in those platforms can help us better weather the storm ahead. Telehealth is often considered an option for calls beyond the hospital to connect with patients at home. But the real strength of telehealth in the fight against COVID-19 is leveraging onsite devices within the hospital, paired with telehealth platforms, to provide immediate access to the care team, family members, and resources like interpreters and specialists. Telehealth can expand the reach of your care both inside and outside of the hospital for COVID-19 patients.
Here’s how.
Telequarantine – Devices that support high-quality video streaming can be used to employ telequarantine, helping to rapidly and safely isolate patients, while providing access to the care team and family members. With Cloudbreak Telehealth, you can add telequarantine capabilities to existing Martti devices already onsite.
Protect Staff and Save PPE – Doctors, nurses, and other care team members can reach patients by connecting virtually over video to bedside devices. Especially important during a pandemic, this reduces exposure risk for staff and helps maintain PPE reserves when times are uncertain.
Multi-Party Calling – Platforms with multi-party calling capabilities expand the impact of your resources. Providers can easily add specialists to ongoing consultations, no matter their location. Care teams can meet and debrief over video without coming into contact with one another or traveling across campus.
Qualified Interpreters – Language access improves communication and provides more equitable care for limited English proficient, Deaf, and hard of hearing patients. By delivering video remote interpretation (VRI), you can add an interpreter to a consultation. Cloudbreak’s Martti can be added to your existing Telehealth, Patient Experience, or EHR platform for immediate access to a qualified interpreter.
“In a COVID situation, when we’re in full PPE gear, most of your face is covered. We’re just screaming through layers of plastic and mask, trying to communicate with the patient. Cloudbreak’s technology has made our interactions mid-pandemic more humane, to be able to speak with someone on that level.”
– Evan Lee-Ferrand, VCU
Add Family and Guests – It is important that quarantined patients still connect with their loved ones, so leveraging telehealth to connect family members is vital. Applications like Cloudbreak Guest make it easy for guests to join a consultation and stay up-to-date on the patient’s status.
Adopting telehealth solutions into daily clinical workflows makes care more accessible, flexible, and scalable for patients, family members, and care teams. At the center of care is our need to connect. Telehealth helps us do that.
If you need help integrating language access into your telequarantine solution, contact us at info@cloudbreak.us.
