April 15, 2020
As caregivers around the world respond to a surge of COVID-19 patients, one of the challenges they face is with rapidly changing standards of care. One example is the evolving recommendation for managing the ventilatory needs of COVID-19 patients. Our VP of Medical Affairs, Carlos Urrea, MD, MPH, tells me that while intubation previously was the preferred approach for these patients, in recent weeks the American Thoracic Society (ATS) recommended that certain patients (such as those with underlying lung disease, cardiogenic thoracic edema or risk for cardiogenic edema) should be considered for non-invasive support prior to intubation.
To help hospitals keep staff current on rapidly changing care guidelines and requirements, Hillrom is partnering with AgileMD to offer COVID-19 clinical pathways at no charge for 12 months. AgileMD provides an EHR-integrated software platform that embeds instant access to advanced clinical pathways and predictive analytics into physician and nursing workflows. With clinical recommendations changing daily and staff turning over quickly due to exposure and illness, these clinical pathways can empower your providers in the ED, inpatient and outpatient settings to quickly implement best practices for evidence-based, consistent care.
Typically, a hospital’s clinical pathway committee might meet a couple of times a year. Due to COVID-19, some teams are meeting as many as three times a day to review the latest resources and revise standards of care. With retired nurses and physicians rejoining the workforce, and non-intensivists being asked to manage acute COVID-19 patients, it’s crucial to update clinical pathways and make them available to staff quickly.
According to Dana Edelson, MD, MS, Co-founder and President of AgileMD as well as a hospitalist and the Executive Medical Director for Rescue Care at University of Chicago Medicine, “Top-tier medical centers are sharing COVID-19 clinical pathways as a reference, enabling others to deploy quickly and easily. Clinicians can adapt guidelines to facility-specific standards with an easy-to-use editing platform with minimal IT involvement.”
We share Dr. Edelson’s goal of giving access to best practices from leading health systems to everyone involved in the fight against COVID-19. As with other digital solutions from Hillrom designed specifically to help hospitals respond to this crisis, we are offering lightning-fast, remote deployment across your health system. Eventually, we plan to deliver additional tools to integrate clinical resources such as these with our digital health platform to ensure efficient delivery of patient information to the appropriate caregiver, including real-time notifications based on algorithms that can predict patient deterioration.
To request more information or to get started with your free COVID-19 clinical pathways, please reach out to your Hillrom Care Communications Executive. You can also take a look at our flyer for AgileMD Clinical Pathways and AgileMD eCART Early Warning System.
Trey Lauderdale is VP and GM of Care Communications at Hillrom.
