Hospitals, healthcare systems and skilled nursing facilities are now receiving valuable doses of COVID-19 vaccine and must find solutions to efficiently deploy immunizations to staff and patients. Employee Health (EH) managers know that the key to the task is a flexible, comprehensive plan to track compliance and communicate with subjects. 

What’s making vaccine tracking more difficult from the outset is the limited and sometimes unpredictable deployment of the vaccine. EH managers can’t over-schedule the shots, but they also don’t want to administer them to too few people and wind up wasting doses. On top of that, guidelines seem to be constantly changing at both the state and federal level. Complicating these considerations is that flu season is still upon us. Accurate tracking is literally a life and death dilemma. 

Many healthcare organizations have taken steps forward toward digitizing paperwork but are stuck with rigid software that wasn’t designed for rapid deployment and the changing guidelines they’re faced with today. Some are still using paper to manually manage employee health. We all get frustrated when we have to spend more time on paperwork or in front of a screen instead of providing care. 

To get vaccine tracking under control this year, set these three goals:

1. Digitize and eliminate paper. Stop entering data by hand and then replicating the work with data entry. Electronic systems don’t need to decipher bad handwriting. Importantly, electronic systems reduce human error and allow the technology to perform the repetitive tasks. Such solutions enable healthcare workers to provide assessment on-the-go using tablets at remote locations.
2. Automate outreach. Stay in touch effortlessly by setting automatic reminders and confirmations. Automated outreach allows for increased engagement. For example, an email can show how much the hospital system appreciates workers’ participation. Morale improves when employees feel that what they do is part of a team effort.
3. Simplify recording and reporting. Electronic solutions offer flexibility, efficiency, and ease of use. For example,  EH staff can load records all at once instead of one-by-one. Or, create reports to track infection rates alongside symptoms. Such electronic software easily allows a technician to cross-reference patients who need Coronavirus shots with those who need flu shots. Have the data at your fingertips when it’s time to report public health information.

You can reach these goals more quickly with a software solution that integrates vaccine tracking with electronic medical records and other EH data. Having to look at separate databases to see who’s been exposed to COVID, who’s tested negative, and who’s next to be immunized creates more work. 

Achieving the three goals and implementing these solutions will also improve workflows related to flu vaccines and exposures. The Coronavirus has pushed many of us into taking steps and adopting technologies we knew we were going to do eventually. 

Net Health® for Employee Health Tracks Exposures and Vaccinations

Now is a good time to consider an employee health software solution that can help you track and monitor all aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Net Health® for Employee Health (Agility®) offers documentation, implementation and reporting that can enable your staff to:

• Perform multiple exposure tracking quickly. Details of the outbreak only have to be entered one time with the names of each staff member who has been exposed. Their individual files are automatically updated with the information. You can also record and report on location of exposure for employees.
• Update vaccination and immunization information using a mobile app. The information uploads to the software solution and automatically updates each staff member’s file.
• Upload COVID-19 vaccination information to state registries. Net Health is now working with several clients to adapt the solution to their state’s requirements.
• Monitor employee requirements. Track employee symptoms by automating proactive follow-up contact, as well as as testing and quarantining.

While Net Health for Employee Health is a comprehensive software solution, Net Health announced a special version in April 2020, to help healthcare organizations manage COVID-19. Learn more.

Additionally, Net Health client Gene Howell, CEO of Reliant Urgent Care in Los Angeles, conducted a webinar and shared best practices for managing COVID-19 using our solution that may be helpful to your organization.

With 2020 behind us, the New Year is a perfect time to set new goals, resolve to be more efficient, and reach desired health and business outcomes.

 

References

1.  Net Health, “Net Health Announces Targeted Solution to Track COVID-19 Medical Staff Exposures,” April 21, 2020.