Seattle-based Swedish Health Services partnered with Microsoft to develop an app for hospital workers to use to view and report real-time data on COVID-19 patient volumes, personal protective equipment and other critical information.
The app, dubbed the COVID-19 Emergency Response App, takes the data Swedish Health staff reports and inputs it into dashboards for hospital leaders. The health system is using the dashboards to track the status of its five hospitals, two freestanding emergency departments and critical areas in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to patient volumes and PPE, the app also provides status updates on hospital occupancy, staffing, discharge management and ventilator usage.
"This near real-time view of quickly changing data is empowering Swedish to better prepare for a COVID-19 surge and better manage the needs of our patients and caregivers," said Kevin Brooks, COO at Swedish First Hill and co-developer of the CERA app. "Based on the synthesized information from the dashboard, Swedish can make decisions, quickly, about whether and where to move resources to better serve patients."
Renton, Wash.-based Providence, an affiliate of Swedish Health Services, will soon launch the CERA app across its health system, according to the news release.