Key COVID Indicators: Making the Case for Evolving KPIs

A year into the global crisis, data now drives the COVID pandemic response.¹ From testing positivity percentages to per-population vaccination rates and the evolving number of patients who have been hospitalized, accurate and on-demand data is critical to inform collective COVID action.

However, prioritizing patient data creates a critical challenge for employee health (EH) departments. How can EH staff monitor and manage key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure regulatory compliance?  Or assess ongoing employee health and incorporate information around internal vaccination efforts and potential exposures?

Here are three approaches that could help:

1. Enhance Integration of Pandemic Data Points

According to the CDC, 6 percent of all adults hospitalized for COVID-19 were health care personnel (HCP), with 67.4 percent likely exposed to the disease through direct patient contact.² In addition, the median age of HCP hospitalized with COVID-19 was 49, significantly lower than the national average of 62.³

Healthcare organizations could use data tools capable of collecting and compiling key pandemic indicators such as percentage of staff screened for COVID-19, percentage tested positive and percentage hospitalized. Armed with this information, EH teams are better equipped to recommend preventative actions to reduce COVID spread and perform priority contact tracing to identify the source of potential outbreaks.

2. Robust Documentation to Ensure Regulatory Compliance

Ongoing regulatory compliance for healthcare relies on robust and accurate documentation of employee health conditions. For example, organizations are required to complete OSHA 300, “Injury and Illness Report” and OSHA 301, “Log of Work-Related Injury and Illness” in response to potential occupational exposures and acquired infections.⁴ In addition, EH departments must now track the number of HCPs vaccinated to help limit the risk of potential spread.

Cloud-based solutions that include mobile immunization tracking and automated documentation can help reduce the risks of missed or inaccurate data collected across multiple vaccination sites or in recording first and second doses for specific staff members, in turn enhancing regulatory compliance.

3. Streamlined Dashboards to Manage Multiple KPIs at Scale 

Seeing is believing. The easier it is for EH teams and healthcare executives to see critical KPIs, the easier it is to develop company-wide responses to specific health challenges. 

In practice, this means providing staff with KPI dashboards that enable them to detect problems and recognize trends as they happen.⁵ 

Net Health’s software solution, Business Insights for Employee Health, offers a KPI dashboard to help hospital executives track and monitor key performance indicators for employee health. Business Insights for Employee Health is offered as part of the comprehensive Net Health® Employee Health software solution, which tracks compliance and employee wellness for healthcare organizations.

KPIs are evolving as pandemic pressures persist. Make the most of your employee health information and emerging data sources with solutions capable of keeping up with new KPIs. 

Learn more about navigating this new operational normal with Net Health’s new eBook — 3 Tools to Help Employee Health Departments Manage COVD-19. Get your copy today.

Resources:

¹CDC, COVID Data Tracker, updated daily by 8pm ET. 

²CDC, “COVID-19–Associated Hospitalizations Among Health Care Personnel — COVID-NET, 13 States, March 1–May 31, 2020,” October 20, 2020.

³CDC, “COVID-19–Associated Hospitalizations Among Health Care Personnel — COVID-NET, 13 States, March 1–May 31, 2020,” October 20, 2020.

⁴CDC, “Management of Healthcare Personnel Health Records,” October 4, 2019. 

⁵Haughom J, “Why CMOs Need Healthcare Executive Dashboards to Lead High-Performing Systems,” May 18, 2017.