What You Should Know:
– Using the EHR-integrated app, Desert Oasis Healthcare efficiently identifies patients with possible Coronavirus symptoms, mitigating the spread, and optimizing treatment.
– Starting in mid-March, DOHC has leveraged Rimidi’s novel, Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) based patient-reported outcomes (PROs) tool.
– To date, over 7,400 patients have been screened prior to their appointments and 831 have been monitored during self-isolation due to COVID-19.
Desert Oasis Healthcare (DOHC), a network of primary care and specialty providers announced the results of rapid and innovative implementation of Rimidi’s EMR-integrated app for the screening, triage, and monitoring of potential and confirmed cases of COVID-19.
Starting in mid-March, DOHC has leveraged Rimidi’s novel, Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) based patient-reported outcomes (PROs) tool. The swift deployment just days after COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic underscores the need for EMR-integrated, FHIR-based applications to support the response to public health crises.
Outcomes/Results
To date, over 7,400 patients have been screened prior to their appointments and 831 have been monitored during self-isolation due to COVID-19. Using the screening tool, patients were sent a brief COVID-19 screening survey along with their text message appointment reminder inquiring about current symptoms and potential exposure to COVID-19. Integrated within the electronic health record (EHR), patient responses were captured and analyzed by clinical teams.
Based on their responses, patients were provided with guidance on the next steps – for example, whether they could continue with preventative best practices, self-isolate or obtain testing and further evaluation. Those individuals instructed to self-isolate were then monitored for worsening symptoms, mental health distress, and social needs – such as access to food and their usual medications during the quarantine.
Among the key findings:
– 88% were told they could continue best practices in prevention and social distancing
– 9.1% of patients reporting symptoms and risk factors (age greater than or equal to 65 years and/or underlying medical condition) were instructed on self-care and called by the triage team for further clinical assessment and evaluation for COVID-19 testing
– Of initial survey respondents, women were more likely to report worsening symptoms (13.8% versus 6.5% men) and younger individuals were more likely to report worsening struggles with anxiety, depression or loneliness (18.5% under age 65 versus 10% of respondents 65+)
– During quarantine, 15.3% of respondents reported difficulty accessing adequate food and medications, with men (22.9%) more likely than women (10.0%) to express this need
The screening questionnaires are based on the latest guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and can be updated centrally as CDC guidance is revised and pushed out to all end users.
According to Lindsey Valenzuela PharmD, APh, BCACP, Administrator of Population Health and Prescription Management at DOHC, “Responding to this novel infectious disease has required us to be nimble, flexible, and ready to change from one day to the next in order to adapt to new evidence and changes in local prevalence. Rimidi has enabled us to quickly deploy those changes and drive efficiency in our team’s workflow. For example, early in the epidemic we shifted all of our in-clinic visits to virtual, and are now in discussions about how to prioritize face to face visits in concert with virtual visits. Rimidi is able to quickly update the directions we’re sending to patients based on their screening results.”
