“One of the most pressing concerns throughout the pandemic has been the strain on medical systems caused by vast quantities and various strains of COVID-19 cases. As the largest health care provider in the nation, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has tackled this concern head-on with the deployment of a new SMART-on-FHIR application developed by the Office of Information and Technology (OIT) in partnership with frontline Emergency Medicine Physicians.”
“Out with the old, in with the new
The COVID-19 Patient Manager is a clinical decision support web application to help emergency physicians and clinicians triage patients to recommend the appropriate medical disposition and treatment. Gone are the days when physicians manually generate, record, and share reports with patients and fellow medical personnel. The COVID-19 Patient Manager application does all of that for medical staff, saving frontline workers precious time and energy that are needed to support more critical patients…”
“The Patient Manager in action
The COVID-19 Patient Manager application does not replace clinical judgment, but rather it gives clinicians guidance along the way. Based on the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) COVID-19 management guidelines, the COVID-19 Patient Manager application gathers patient data and integrates it with VA’s Electronic Health Record (EHR). It then outputs treatment recommendations, including medications and whether a patient should be discharged, monitored, or escalated to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).”
“There are currently 20 VA Medical Centers (VAMCs) with 490 medical staff using the application, and 4 more VAMCs are in discussions with developers to add it to their toolkit. In the few months since the initial launch, physicians are excited about the application’s performance. Their feedback shows that the application collects patient demographic, vital signs, and laboratory results much more efficiently and with less error than when medical personnel did it manually…” Read the full article here.
Source: Saving Lives Nationwide – COVID-19 Patient Manager – February 16, 2022. DigitalVA.
