Hospital internal comms system - COVID-19 Support

Our healthcare professionals are struggling to communicate with colleagues who are in isolation areas treating infected patients due to a lack of intercommunication systems installed in the hospitals adapted to treat covid infected patients.

1. Identified problem

Due to the pandemic, Hospital de Santa Maria, the biggest hospital in the Lisbon region, was forced to convert nursing rooms into Covid intensive care units where positive and aggravated patients would be assisted. These rooms were not prepared for communications with the outside of the room, except for a landline telephone, which was unfeasible due to the danger of contamination. This obstruction to communication with the outside was putting the patient's life at risk and was resulting in excessive use of PPE whenever a nurse or doctor came outside to request necessary medication or other supplies and support.

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2. Solution implemented

Due to the urgency of the request, we looked for simple solutions to help with internal hospital communication. So we looked to test several available intercomm systems

Baby monitors - Didn't solve the problem

Pros - Didn't require touch to communicate
Cons - Unilateral

Microphones installed inside the healthcare professional covid protective equipment - Didn't solve the problem

Pros - Bilateral
Cons - When removing the suit, which is a rigorous process to ensure non-contagion, the wires and the device inside the suit could compromise this process.

A remote work addp istalled in a phone - Didn't solve the problem

Pros - Bilateral
Cons - Required a very stable internet connection and complex to deploy as some phones weren't capable of running such app

Intercommunication system - Implemented solution

This solution allowed, without the need for contact by the healthcare professional who is in the intensive care room, to speak and even train colleagues (the devices are equipped with a microphone and camera) to ensure that contagion is minimized.

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3. Who supported Spread in this intervention?

This solution included the donation of 12 devices from Vodafone and with the with pro bono logistical and operational support from LeanHealth consultancy

4. What was the purpose of the solution implemented?

• Facilitate nurses' access to patient information, in real-time, with quality of perception;

• Reduce the waiting time between the request of professionals with infected patients in isolation rooms and the response of the nurse who provides support abroad;

• Reduce waste of protective material (mask, disinfection product), which was scarce at this time.

5. What was the social impact created?

• Remote monitoring is now possible due to the camera and sound within the unit allowing an increase in the capacity of the healthcare professionals team to assist more rooms at the same time at Hospital Sta Maria;

• Health professionals from the intensive care unit of Hospital Sta Maria;

• We know that the same solution has already impacted around 240 patients since our intervention, where the hospital communicated directly to Vodafone to request more devices and support in the implementation.

• The project was implemented during the first wave of lockdown at Hospital Santa Maria and the solution extended to other facilities with similar constraints.

Testimony of a nurse coordinator of an intensive care unit:
"...you can hear sound and see the red zone when you're in the clean zone! The imaging camera has a great range. Today we did a surgical procedure and only the minimum number of people entered! The others stayed outside to see and learn by camera!Thank you!"