Orion Health eases strain on health systems with COVID-19 patient management solution
Three-part solution helps to identify, manage and engage with COVID-19 patients
Orion Health is offering support to the NHS and health systems worldwide through a comprehensive technology solution aimed at reducing the load on acute hospitals as a result of COVID-19.
Since the beginning of the outbreak, the company has been focused on quickly configuring and deploying solutions to combat the COVID-19 crisis.
Throughout this work, it has been working closely with its customers to ensure the solutions meet the needs of individual healthcare providers and their priorities for managing the pandemic.
Health systems are being pushed to their limits and need digital systems that can help them monitor and track the spread of the virus in their region as well as keep people from coming into clinics where they are at risk of infection or infecting others
The company’s Outbreak Management Solution reflects the situation that in the space of a few weeks there has been a rapid and necessary shift in the way that healthcare is delivered, from an emphasis on face-to-face, point-to-point healthcare to using telehealth and virtual care methods, enabling one clinician to see many patients.
It comprises three modules that customers can select from, depending on their individual priorities - Identify, Manage and Engage.
Gary Birks, general manager at Orion Health, said: "The intention is to reduce the inevitable burden that virus outbreaks can place on an already-stretched health service.
“We want to alleviate spikes in demand, reduce the risk of further spread of the virus and flatten the epidemiological curve. Our comprehensive solution strongly supports the shift to a virtual care approach."
Identify
This module enables patients to be identified and curated, for both COVID-19 negative and positive results, to highlight who would benefit from active remote monitoring or care as well as tracking of their ongoing progress.
This allows healthcare providers to maintain the visibility of patients who are presenting symptoms, or those concerned they may have had exposure to the virus.
A reporting dashboard also allows providers to track and display the status of COVID-19 cases.
Manage
This module ensures providers can actively engage and manage patients before they are admitted to hospital and continue engagement with those appropriate after discharge.
Patients’ symptoms can be managed through digital questionnaires that allow providers to triage and stratify populations based on their own clinical protocols and risk thresholds.
This means the health system can manage and focus on those most at-risk and reserve one-on-one phone calls or consultations for those individuals who most need them, as well as ensuring visibility over imminent service demand.
Engage
In this module, using a patient portal and secure messaging, healthcare providers can communicate directly with their patients to provide negative COVID-19 test results; reducing the burden on healthcare workers, some of whom have been making up to 300 patient calls per day.
Clinicians can engage with patients through secure, two-way messaging, which allows patients to contact their care providers, if required, and update them on their symptoms.
This patient portal technology is already established within the UK. Since 2018, Northern Ireland has had a pathfinder project with Engage Patient Portal in place to improve care for citizens living with dementia.
And Golden Jubilee National Hospital in Scotland has been using Engage Patient Portal since 2017 to support pulmonary hypertensive patients attending the Scottish Adult Congenital Cardiac Service.
Whether healthcare providers opt for the entire Outbreak Management Solution to help combat COVID-19, or elements, the aim is that it will help to reduce the burden on hospitals by keeping significant numbers of patients cared for in their own homes.
As the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases continues to grow globally, especially in those countries currently in the community outbreak phase of the disease, there will be a need for healthcare workers to support people from their homes and our solution has been designed with this in mind
Ian McCrae, Orion Health chief executive, said: “We’ve designed a unique, comprehensive outbreak management solution specifically aimed at reducing the burden COVID-19 is placing on stretched health services globally.”
“Health systems are being pushed to their limits and need digital systems that can help them monitor and track the spread of the virus in their region as well as keep people from coming into clinics where they are at risk of infection or infecting others.
“As the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases continues to grow globally, especially in those countries currently in the community outbreak phase of the disease, there will be a need for healthcare workers to support people from their homes and our solution has been designed with this in mind.”
