In the age of fighting COVID, two things became apparent early on. First, our healthcare workers and other essential workers are heroes, plain and simple. And to continue their heroic work, they must be protected. That brings us to the second lesson: the need for quick, contactless wellness screening and a well-developed pipeline for PPE (personal protection equipment) distribution.
In early 2020, when COVID-19 cases began to spread seemingly uncontrolled in some regions, hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare providers put protocols in place as quickly as possible, utilizing mostly manual temperature-taking methods as employees and patients entered facilities. But these cumbersome measures proved inadequate and put everyone at a greater risk of contracting the highly transmittable virus.
Contactless Wellness Screening
The HR director of a large healthcare system in the Northeast, made up of hospitals, physician practices and long-term care facilities, knew there had to be a better solution than their current manual screening protocols.
She reached out to MicroAge’s Nathan Corrigan for help.
After researching exactly this type of wellness vetting automation, Nathan immediately knew the right resource.
“I knew that Readiness Rounds had recently developed a standalone kiosk, Well Screen™, for exactly this type of use case,” said Nathan. “It provides a five-point hospital entrance protocol that integrates everything required to reduce the spread of infection.”
“It’s the Cadillac of wellness screening kiosks,” he adds.
Nathan quickly arranged for Readiness Rounds’ Luciana Prata to present a Well Screen demo for the client.
Well Screen™ 5-Point Hospital Entrance Protocol
The Well Screen™ kiosk provides a 5-Point Hospital Entrance Protocol
“Accessing healthcare facilities has drastically changed due to the pandemic,” said Readiness Rounds Product & Sales Consultant Luciana Prata. “We developed our Well Screen technology in the spring of 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 outbreak in New York. It combines multiple critical systems into a single automated platform to efficiently and safely improve vital health monitoring.”
Each kiosk needs only power and an internet connection for thermal temperature screening, an employee badge reader, a customizable wellness symptom check questionnaire, a visitor and patient badge printer, and a mask distribution tracker and PPE type identification.
“For instance, an ICU nurse will be instructed to take an N95 mask, while a patient takes a simple surgical mask,” Luciana continues. “More advanced protection, like goggles and face shields, are usually stored beyond the entrance, where a connected desktop computer tracks inventory.”
“And it’s all automated to reduce person-to-person contact,” adds Nathan.
“The first demo was followed by two more, each one growing in size as interest increased and more stakeholders took part,” said Nathan. “Twelve participants attended the last demo, including the CIO and security director for each of the organization’s hospitals.”
Another gamechanger is the Well Screen process managing the increasing complexity around visitor guidelines at healthcare facilities. The technology streamlines keeping up with constantly changing regulatory requirements, travel bans, and other requirements—making adjustments on the fly to visiting hours and changing visitor capacities and allowance.
Freeing Up Critical Healthcare Personnel
The benefits of touchless, integrated features were felt organization-wide. But perhaps most important was freeing up their critical nursing staff with automated Readiness Rounds Well Screen kiosks. In their prior manual system, an RN or other caregiver had to stand at every entrance taking temperatures and screening each person upon entry. Now, these nurses could be redeployed to critical patient care.
Readiness Rounds technicians worked with hospital staff to customize the kiosks pre-programmed with standard wellness screening questions based on CDC COVID-19 guidelines.
“They ordered a kiosk for every entrance to each of their facilities—51 in all. That translates to a 50 percent reduction in screening staff, redeploying those nurses back into patient care, where their skills are most needed,” Nathan said. “They’re screening over 1.8 million people annually, using half the staff, so you can imagine what a big impact this has had on their staffing and efficiency.”
Want to free up nursing staff for critical patient care?
Let’s talk
MicroAge can help you reallocate critical staff to their highest and best use with a contactless wellness screening solution. Call us at 800-544-8877.
