This week I am talking to Deanna Parker, Assistant VP of Emergency Services at Hardin Memorial that is located in Elizabethtown Kentucky – the heart of Bourbon Whiskey production – more on that later. The area is still in the early stages of the pandemic crisis with a limited number of cases but as Deanna points out this may not be a realistic measure given the lack of testing capability.
Everything has changed at their hospital with he COVID19 pandemic sweeping across the world they, like every other hospital and healthcare service facility, have had to re-think the way they offer services to their community and patients. As Deanna points out the new guidance of social distancing is at odds with the nature of healthcare and the personal interaction that are so important to the delivery of compassionate care to patients.
With an expansion to their Emergency room, they were finding increasing challenges to critical communication between staff that had been possible in a smaller space but was no longer the case. Using hands-free communication technology from Vocera they implemented this across the department improving patient and clinician experiences across the board. In the current crisis, this capability has already been a huge boost to their new workflow with a “Pivot Station” at the front of the hospital staffed by a clinician who screens all patients as they arrive and routing them depending on their COID19 status. Communication between the various groups has been essential and facilitated by the availability of voice connections to all staff in different areas.
Listen in as we discuss the harrowing challenges they face on a daily basis of shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE), masks and hand sanitizer and how they are managing this. Given their location in the heart of Bourbon country, they have found a bright spot in the current crisis and the shortage of hand sanitizer with a local distillery providing hand sanitizer by repurposing the distillery for its production.
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