Jeff Turley, global CEO of the Clinical Command Center of General Electric Medical Group, said that the system was created in cooperation with the local health bureau. It can process 4.2 million data points every day, covering 7368 beds and about 800 ventilators in 60 local hospitals, and the data is updated every five minutes.
In June, 2020, a study published by CriticalCareExplorations magazine showed that in just two weeks, the system covered 90% hospitals in Oregon.
This system is the first time in America.
The "chemical reaction" brought by an idea
March, 202014 A supervisor of the Mission Control Center of Oregon Health and Science University thinks that now COVID-19 is sweeping across the United States, if we can have a system to enjoy the number of beds and medical equipment, then doctors can know the idle capacity of beds and ventilators in each hospital.
That night, the mission control advisory group of Oregon Health and Science University at the General Electric Medical Command Center worked out the plan outline.
Matthias Johannes Merkel, senior deputy chief medical officer of the patient management department of Oregon Health and Science University Hospital, said that in the past, Oregon, like other states, manually confirmed bed data of other hospitals. The data obtained by manual confirmation is useful for reporting the situation, but due to the "outdated" nature of the data, once the patient needs to be transferred to another hospital in an emergency, such as during an epidemic, these manual data are meaningless.
The implementation process is full of challenges.
Merkel said that there are three major challenges behind Oregon's success.
First, convince the hospital to enjoy the data.
Merkel revealed that although clinicians immediately realized the advantages of the system, persuading hospital authorities to share their own data faced obstacles. "The biggest challenge is whether we can find a reason for hospitals to give up competition and enjoy their own data, but it is good for them." Because even the health bureau leaders in Portland, Oregon are thinking, is this really a good idea?
Terry said that the transparency of hospital data is a milestone. In normal times, big hospitals are all competitive, and there is indeed cooperation, but more competition. So in fact, it is almost impossible to make hospitals in Oregon work together.
Fortunately, Merkel added, in the end, all hospitals agree that it is absolutely beneficial to enjoy information in an epidemic situation.
Second, technical challenges.
Terry said, "In Oregon, it is difficult to automate the medical system because it is difficult to obtain data other than electronic medical record data. Almost every hospital uses different IT systems. The 60 hospitals that have joined the bed allowance system involve about 40 different IT systems. We also need to think of a new method to extract hospital data. The extraction speed of this method must be fast enough, and more importantly, the risk must be low enough, that is, the patient's health information cannot be extracted. "
Research in CriticalCareExplorations magazine shows that researchers at Oregon Health and Science University quickly solved the first key step in technology, which took an hour.
Third, financial challenges.
The mission control center of Oregon Health and Science University is the information hub of the system, where all the data are summarized.
Behind the huge data is huge technical expenditure. The Oregon Health and Science University Foundation said that the resulting technical funds were provided by them and did not need to be borne by Oregon Health and Science University.
Working principle of the new system
Merkel said that all information in the system is displayed by region. Hospitals using this system can access specific websites to obtain information through mobile phones or other network devices. At the Mission Control Center of Oregon Health and Science University, researchers project data onto an electronic screen.
The system data shows the remaining amount of ventilator and the available amount of 13 kinds of beds, including the number of beds in adult intensive care unit, the number of beds in children intensive care unit and the number of beds with negative pressure. It is planned to increase the data of emergency beds in the future.
Every hospital uses this system in different ways. Many hospitals regard it as a part of daily patrol or emergency action meeting; Some hospitals check the system from time to time to understand their reception ability; Other hospitals wait until the available quota is almost exceeded before checking the system to see if there are other options.
Terry said, "Once there is a surge of patients in COVID-19, senior nursing doctors like Merkel will use this system to lead hospitals and temporary hospitals to transfer patients reasonably. Similarly, this system can also cope with other catastrophic events. "
Let's talk about the epidemic, not just the epidemic.
At present, Oregon Health and Science University is still exploring the use of the system outside the COVID-19 epidemic, especially in some special areas, such as the child burn intensive care unit. Prior to this, Oregon suffered an unprecedented large-scale wildfire, and the real-time information of hospital bed allowance has demonstrated its advantages.
Merkel believes that the COVID-19 epidemic will pass one day, but the demand for beds for similar burn patients is long-term. This system can help doctors to serve patients more effectively.
In the future, Oregon trauma care will also realize information sharing, and they will continue to study in the future to better combine the system with other emergency actions.
Merkel said that the system has also spawned many other collaborations. Now every week, the marketing director of the hospital will make several phone calls. Merkel hopes that people can learn from this epidemic and establish a stronger medical and health system and coping mechanism.
General Electric Medical Group said that following the success of Oregon, Florida will also launch its own data sharing system at the end of September.
The command centers of AdventHealth, HCA Medical Company and Tampa General Hospital are all in Florida. These medical institutions hope to develop similar systems under the leadership of Florida Health Care Authority, and have already contacted the partners of General Electric Medical Group.
Terry predicted that other states in the United States are likely to follow Florida's footsteps and realize statewide data sharing, and eventually a nationwide system will emerge.
Source: Health Leaders
Original title: Coronavirus Pneumonia-19: Oregon hospitals share data and create a real-time capability system.