Barwon Best Care Awards

In July 2020 it became clear there was a need for COVID-19 Pop-up testing clinics in public spaces and businesses. We noted:

• Demand levels would be fluctuating and unpredictable
• Testing could be required at short notice in locations with no existing suitable infrastructure.

SWARH works across all 13 member hospitals to deliver IT Infrastructure, support and solutions, supporting the strategy of a regional approach to healthcare. In the COVID-19 regional response

SWARH mobilised operations at off-site testing clinics in a way that allowed users to access the tools they were familiar with, supporting seamless patient care.

Objectives

Devise a solution and provide the infrastructure and support required to implement Pop-up Testing Clinics off-site in community based locations at very short notice.

Offer a way for hospitals to operate and deliver services as if they were on site, keeping secure data and processes within the existing patient management system.

Methods and Implemetation

• The solution was implemented in Pop-up Testing Clinics at a golf course, two meat works facilities, a football field, an ice-cream factory, and several drive-through locations.
• Hospitals advised SWARH of the need for pop-up testing clinics, sometimes with as little as a day’s notice.
• The Infrastructure Team co-ordinated and provided hardware to take off-site.
• They also set up an innovative, secure off-site network connection to allow access to familiar clinical applications.
• The Applications Teams configured TrakCare system settings to include pop-up clinic operations within the ED workflow and print to off-site locations in the South West region.
• This provided a simple and seamless outcome for users who were able to log in to the patient management system and operate as if they were in the hospital.
• TrakCare Users were able to access existing patient records, order pathology, print pathology slips and patient labels, and print medical certificates from off-site locations.
• The Barwon Health CAS team configured IPM to manage COVID bookings for Barwon Health North.

Tools and Techniques

In addition to sourcing laptops, printers and phones, SWARH provided the secure network connection that enabled direct access to clinical applications allowing pop-ups to fully mimic on-site operations.

Results

Pop-up testing clinics were mobilised in Colac, Hamilton, Warrnambool, Portland, Otway, Lorne and Barwon Health North.

By establishing operations that mirrored on-site processes hospitals were able to:

• Continue to meet statutory reporting requirements through existing channels
• Continue to build on a patient’s EHR
• Service patients efficiently by utilising their existing patient record.

Otway - on printing Pathology slips and patient labels that included Medicare and phone numbers: “This was fantastic and a great time saver”.

Colac – “arranging devices/creating a portable set up was crucial to having reliable and accurate COVID data as well as complete and accurate patient medical records”.

Key Learnings

An agile framework combined with our commitment to supporting our partners was critical to the success of this work. Effective partnerships with member sites and within SWARH’s multi-disciplinary teams allowed us to provide an innovative solution to support the hospitals and reduce their stress under unique and challenging circumstances.

Sustainability

Many hospitals across Victoria have required hard-copy patient registrations when getting tested. We have supported users to continue using direct data entry, avoiding paper-based processes.

This flexible solution has never been required or designed before and has led the way for Victorian Hospitals. This technology can now be replicated and applied in an off-site setting for future incidents or disaster situations.