At Access eHealth Technologies, our goal of building a streamlined, effective, and cost-efficient medical software requires the input of our clients to be the best it possibly can. That’s why Access eHealth is part of an ongoing initiative to gain insight into the problems that medical facilities face every day. Part of this initiative is attending the Virtual Reverse Trade Show hosted by the University of Calgary that explores rapid solutions for COVID-19 in continuing care. We had the opportunity to listen to real-life issues that medical facilities face during the COVID-19 pandemic and how the industry can better prepare against future outbreaks. Thank you to the industry leaders that participated—we’ve collected some very helpful insight from the event.
In this blog, we’ll be talking about one of the most widely requested topics from the Virtual Reverse Trade Show: Building a better platform for families to effectively communicate in a virtual setting.
What are some of the issues medical facilities face today?
In its current state, there is a disparate disconnect of communication between the facilities and families—especially within long-term care facilities. Families with elderly loved ones living in long-term care facilities have little to no information on what is being done for them in real-time. Families want to know that their loved ones are being cared for, but the only way is to call the medical facility and wait until there is an available nurse to address any questions. This process is time-consuming to both the medical staff and families, and the COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbates this problem. With policies in place to prevent the spread of infection to a high-risk population, many facilities have temporarily limited or banned family visits.
The type of information that families most commonly seek out include:
- Meals
- What kind of food is being served?
- When are they being served?
- Is there a loss of appetite?
- Medication
- What type of medication is being administered?
- When is it being administered?
- Have they been safely administered?
- Hygiene
- What does their shower schedule look like?
- Activities
- What activities are being scheduled to keep them engaged?
Those staying in long-term care facilities facing infection outbreaks, including COVID-19, are expected to stay inside their rooms until the infection is contained. Common rooms must then be cleaned and disinfected thoroughly before residents can re-enter those areas. This process can last weeks or months before the medical team can safely determine the infection has been contained. This prolonged isolation with little to no stimuli creates psychological and emotional stress for facility residents.
How can we address these problems?
Medical facilities need a solution to this problem. Thankfully, virtual conferences provide an excellent way to do so. Virtual conferences allow medical facilities to have one-on-one conversations or group calls with families or patients without exposing either party to the risk of infection. Our TeleHealth module provides these medical facilities with the necessary tools to perform these tasks with their residents and families. Additionally, families through our family portal are now able to view (in real-time) the care their loved ones receive such as meals, medication, hygiene, and enrolled recreational activities. The Telehealth module can also securely send and receive messages from the facilities and care providers.
While Telehealth is excellent at communicating updates to families on a real-time basis, its functionality extends far greater than this. Physiotherapists are now able to remotely schedule and organize individual and group calls for recreational activities and therapies. Families are then able to book and schedule activities independently and at their convenience for a week, month or year. From physiotherapy, emotional support or group therapy sessions, to the occasional BINGO game, families can see the level of physical tolerance required from the resident and determine what would be best for them.
Local resources also make it easy for residents to find important numbers in a quick and easy way. Phone numbers such as an emergency contact, taxi numbers for travel to and from their appointments, home, or recreational activities. These numbers can be easily customized by the facilities to make it simple and easy for their families and residents.
Best of all, these features can be easily accessed by the resident or family member via the family portal.
What makes our TeleHealth modules unique to other video conferencing solutions?
Like any Access eHealth Technologies software, you can trust AccessEMR to be safe and secure. While many video conferencing platforms have gained popularity in the past few months, many of these tools do not meet the minimum requires of privacy and security as laid out by HIA, PIPEDA, FHIR, HIPAA, ONC, and Canada Health Infoway privacy and security certification. AccessEMR is equipped with end-to-end encryption and meets or exceeds these Canadian and American medical and health information standards . In addition, these versions were not developed for healthcare and thus has no features specifically created to help treat patients online, nor was it designed to store patient data. Nurses and physiotherapists can retrieve specific health information straight from AccessEMR to determine if the resident is capable and tolerant to the physical strain of any activity.
Want to learn more?
We are proud to announce that our electronic medical record, AccessEMR, will be launching with TeleHealth included! Contact us today to book a demo and learn more.