scholarly journals A Web-Based, Mobile-Responsive Application to Screen Health Care Workers for COVID-19 Symptoms: Rapid Design, Deployment, and Usage (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haipeng Zhang ◽  
Dimitar Dimitrov ◽  
Lynn Simpson ◽  
Nina Plaks ◽  
Balaji Singh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Workers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Time Of Day ◽  
The Self ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Symptom Screening ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Self Service ◽  
Service Application

BACKGROUND As of July 17, 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected over 14 million people worldwide, with over 3.68 million cases in the United States. As the number of COVID-19 cases increased in Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health mandated that all health care workers be screened for symptoms daily prior to entering any hospital or health care facility. We rapidly created a digital COVID-19 symptom screening tool to enable this screening for a large, academic, integrated health care delivery system, Partners HealthCare, in Boston, Massachusetts. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to describe the design and development of the COVID Pass COVID-19 symptom screening application and report aggregate usage data from the first three months of its use across the organization. METHODS Using agile principles, we designed, tested, and implemented a solution over the span of one week using progressively customized development approaches as the requirements and use case become more solidified. We developed the minimum viable product (MVP) of a mobile-responsive, web-based, self-service application using research electronic data capture (REDCap). For employees without access to a computer or mobile device to use the self-service application, we established a manual process where in-person, socially distanced screeners asked employees entering the site if they have symptoms and then manually recorded the responses in an Office 365 Form. A custom .NET Framework application solution was developed as COVID Pass was scaled. We collected log data from the .NET application, REDCap, and Microsoft Office 365 from the first three months of enterprise deployment (March 30 to June 30, 2020). Aggregate descriptive statistics, including overall employee attestations by day and site, employee attestations by application method (COVID Pass automatic screening vs manual screening), employee attestations by time of day, and percentage of employees reporting COVID-19 symptoms, were obtained. RESULTS We rapidly created the MVP and gradually deployed it across the hospitals in our organization. By the end of the first week, the screening application was being used by over 25,000 employees each weekday. After three months, 2,169,406 attestations were recorded with COVID Pass. Over this period, 1865/160,159 employees (1.2%) reported positive symptoms. 1,976,379 of the 2,169,406 attestations (91.1%) were generated from the self-service screening application. The remainder were generated either from manual attestation processes (174,865/2,169,406, 8.1%) or COVID Pass kiosks (25,133/2,169,406, 1.2%). Hospital staff continued to work 24 hours per day, with staff attestations peaking around shift changes between 7 and 8 AM, 2 and 3 PM, 4 and 6 PM, and 11 PM and midnight. CONCLUSIONS Using rapid, agile development, we quickly created and deployed a dedicated employee attestation application that gained widespread adoption and use within our health system. Further, we identified 1865 symptomatic employees who otherwise may have come to work, potentially putting others at risk. We share the story of our implementation, lessons learned, and source code (via GitHub) for other institutions who may want to implement similar solutions.

scholarly journals A Web-Based, Mobile-Responsive Application to Screen Health Care Workers for COVID-19 Symptoms: Rapid Design, Deployment, and Usage

10.2196/19533 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (10) ◽  
pp. e19533
Author(s):  
Haipeng Zhang ◽  
Dimitar Dimitrov ◽  
Lynn Simpson ◽  
Nina Plaks ◽  
Balaji Singh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Workers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Time Of Day ◽  
The Self ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Symptom Screening ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Self Service ◽  
Service Application

Background As of July 17, 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected over 14 million people worldwide, with over 3.68 million cases in the United States. As the number of COVID-19 cases increased in Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health mandated that all health care workers be screened for symptoms daily prior to entering any hospital or health care facility. We rapidly created a digital COVID-19 symptom screening tool to enable this screening for a large, academic, integrated health care delivery system, Partners HealthCare, in Boston, Massachusetts. Objective The aim of this study is to describe the design and development of the COVID Pass COVID-19 symptom screening application and report aggregate usage data from the first three months of its use across the organization. Methods Using agile principles, we designed, tested, and implemented a solution over the span of one week using progressively customized development approaches as the requirements and use case become more solidified. We developed the minimum viable product (MVP) of a mobile-responsive, web-based, self-service application using research electronic data capture (REDCap). For employees without access to a computer or mobile device to use the self-service application, we established a manual process where in-person, socially distanced screeners asked employees entering the site if they have symptoms and then manually recorded the responses in an Office 365 Form. A custom .NET Framework application solution was developed as COVID Pass was scaled. We collected log data from the .NET application, REDCap, and Microsoft Office 365 from the first three months of enterprise deployment (March 30 to June 30, 2020). Aggregate descriptive statistics, including overall employee attestations by day and site, employee attestations by application method (COVID Pass automatic screening vs manual screening), employee attestations by time of day, and percentage of employees reporting COVID-19 symptoms, were obtained. Results We rapidly created the MVP and gradually deployed it across the hospitals in our organization. By the end of the first week, the screening application was being used by over 25,000 employees each weekday. After three months, 2,169,406 attestations were recorded with COVID Pass. Over this period, 1865/160,159 employees (1.2%) reported positive symptoms. 1,976,379 of the 2,169,406 attestations (91.1%) were generated from the self-service screening application. The remainder were generated either from manual attestation processes (174,865/2,169,406, 8.1%) or COVID Pass kiosks (25,133/2,169,406, 1.2%). Hospital staff continued to work 24 hours per day, with staff attestations peaking around shift changes between 7 and 8 AM, 2 and 3 PM, 4 and 6 PM, and 11 PM and midnight. Conclusions Using rapid, agile development, we quickly created and deployed a dedicated employee attestation application that gained widespread adoption and use within our health system. Further, we identified 1865 symptomatic employees who otherwise may have come to work, potentially putting others at risk. We share the story of our implementation, lessons learned, and source code (via GitHub) for other institutions who may want to implement similar solutions.

scholarly journals A Web-based, Mobile Responsive Application to Screen Healthcare Workers for COVID Symptoms: Descriptive Study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haipeng (Mark) Zhang ◽  
Dimitar Dimitrov ◽  
Lynn Simpson ◽  
Balaji Singh ◽  
Nina Plaks ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Healthcare Delivery ◽  
The United States ◽  
Time Of Day ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
The Self ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Symptom Screening ◽  
Self Service ◽  
Service Application

AbstractBackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has impacted over 1 million people across the globe, with over 330,000 cases in the United States. To help limit the spread in Massachusetts, the Department of Public Health required that all healthcare workers must be screened for symptoms daily – individuals with symptoms may not work. We rapidly created a digital COVID-19 symptom screening tool for a large, academic, integrated healthcare delivery system, Partners HealthCare, in Boston, Massachusetts.ObjectiveWe describe the design and development of the COVID-19 symptom screening application and report on aggregate usage data from the first week of use across the organization.MethodsUsing agile principles, we designed, tested and implemented a solution over the span of a week using progressively custom development approaches as the requirements and use case become more solidified. We developed the minimum viable product (MVP) of a mobile responsive, web-based self-service application using REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture). For employees without access to a computer or mobile device to use the self-service application, we established a manual process where in-person, socially distanced screeners asked employees entering the site if they have symptoms and then manually recorded the responses in an Office 365 Form. A custom .NET Framework application was developed solution as COVID Pass was scaled. We collected log data from the .NET application, REDCap and Office 365 from the first week of full enterprise deployment (March 30, 2020 – April 5, 2020). Aggregate descriptive statistics including overall employee attestations by day and site, employee attestations by application method (COVID Pass automatic screening vs. manual screening), employee attestations by time of day, and percentage of employees reporting COVID-19 symptomsResultsWe rapidly created the MVP and gradually deployed it across the hospitals in our organization. By the end of the first week of enterprise deployment, the screening application was being used by over 25,000 employees each weekday. Over the first full week of deployment, 154,730 employee attestation logs were processed across the system. Over this 7-day period, 558 (0.36%) employees reported positive symptoms. In most clinical locations, the majority of employees (∼80-90%) used the self-service application, with a smaller percentage (∼10-20%) using manual attestation. Hospital staff continued to work around the clock, but as expected, staff attestations peaked during shift changes between 7-8am, 2-3pm, 4-6pm, and 11pm-midnight.ConclusionsUsing rapid, agile development, we quickly created and deployed a dedicated employee attestation application that gained widespread adoption and use within our health system. Further, we have identified over 500 symptomatic employees that otherwise would have possibly come to work, potentially putting others at risk. We share the story of our implementation, lessons learned, and source code (via GitHub) for other institutions who may want to implement similar solutions.

Interventions for Improving Health Care Workers’ Retention in Epidemics – a Scoping Review

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zahra Zarei Jelyani ◽  
Sadra Valiee ◽  
Mohammad Kia ◽  
Ali jajarmizadeh ◽  
Sajad Delavari
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Human Resources ◽  
Health System ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Health Care Workers ◽  
Health Resources ◽  
The United States ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Care Workers

Abstract Introduction: Generally, in Epidemics, such as COVID-19, health care workers (HCWs) faces many problems which lead to a shortage and weakening of human resources in the health system. Therefore, using effective strategies to retain human resources is one of the most important issues during outbreaks. This study aims to collect and classify the proposed interventions to strengthen human health resources and their sustainability during epidemics through scoping review.Methods: In this scoping review study, 2300 studies were retrieved through searching international databases –PubMed, Embase, Scopus and Web of Science. The retrieved studies were screened, and finally, 50 studies were included for analysis. The strategies were classified using inductive qualitative content analysis.Results: Most of the studies were conducted in the United States and the United Kingdom. The target population in 39 studies was all health workers; five studies were on physicians, five studies on nurses, and only one study on dentists. The proposed interventions were classified into five categories: preparation, protection, support, treatment, and feedback. Discussion: Most studies focused on providing interventions in one or two dimensions of human resources, but these interventions were summarized and categorized in this review. Therefore, this study has a holistic view of various dimensions of strengthening and maintaining human health resources during epidemics by providing a thematic map. Considering that human beings are multidimensional, policymakers and managers of the health system should use a set of interventions that simultaneously cover different aspects of their needs to strengthen and maintain HCWs.

scholarly journals Brief report: Influenza vaccination and health care workers in the united states

2006 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
William D. King ◽  
Steffie J. Woolhandler ◽  
Arleen F. Brown ◽  
Luohua Jiang ◽  
Kristine Kevorkian ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Influenza Vaccination ◽  
Health Care Workers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Care Workers

scholarly journals Reliability and Validity ofan Adapted QuestionnaireAssessing OccupationalExposures to HazardousChemicals among HealthCare Workers in Bhutan

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 128-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajni Rai ◽  
Sonia El-Zaemey ◽  
Nidup Dorji ◽  
Lin Fritschi
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Workers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Percentage Agreement ◽  
Occupational History ◽  
Retest Reliability ◽  
History Data ◽  
Validated Questionnaire ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Test Retest Reliability

Background: Collection of reliable and valid occupational history data is of utmost importanceto assess work-related exposures and their health effects. Few standardized questionnairesare available for the collection of occupational history data in low-and-middle incomecountries. Objective: To adapt and test a validated questionnaire developed in the United States by theNational Institute of Safety and Health, in order to assess occupational chemical exposuresamong health care workers in Bhutan. Methods: The questionnaire was first adapted to suit the Bhutanese context with the adviceof an expert review committee. 30 health care workers then completed the questionnaire atbaseline and 10–14 days later. Test-retest reliability was assessed by calculating Cohen's κand percentage agreement. Results: The questionnaire had high test-retest reliability. Cohen's κ ranged from 0.61 to1.00, and percentage agreement ranged from 86.7% to 100%. Further adaptations includedomitting questions on chemicals not available in Bhutan. Conclusion: The adapted questionnaire is appropriate for assessing occupational chemicalexposures among health care workers in Bhutan.

scholarly journals Utilization of an Orthopedic Hood as Personal Protective Equipment for Intubation of Coronavirus Patients: a Brief Technical Report

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 215145932093055 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy T. Wills ◽  
Wilhelm A. Zuelzer ◽  
Bryant W. Tran
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
High Risk ◽  
Endotracheal Intubation ◽  
Health Care Workers ◽  
Personal Protective Equipment ◽  
Ventilation System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Protective Equipment ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Technical Report

Background: The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has afflicted millions of people worldwide since its first case was reported in December 2019. Personal protective equipment (PPE) has been tailored accordingly, but as of April 2020, close to 10 000 health care workers in the United States have contracted COVID-19 despite wearing recommended PPE. As such, standard guidelines for PPE may be inadequate for the health care worker performing high-risk aerosolizing procedures such as endotracheal intubation. In this brief technical report, we describe the integration of an orthopedic hood cover as an item for full barrier protection against COVID-19 transmission. Technical Description: The Coronavirus Airway Task Force at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center approved this initiative and went live with the full barrier suit during the last week of March 2020. The PPE described in this report includes a Stryker T4 Hood, normally used in conjunction with the Stryker Steri-Shield T4 Helmet. Instead of the helmet, the hood is secured to the head via a baseball cap and binder clip. This head covering apparatus is to be used as an accessory to other PPE items that include an N95 mask, waterproof gown, and disposable gloves. The motor ventilation system is not used in order to prevent airborne viral entry into the hood. Discussion: An advantage of the full barrier suit is an additional layer of droplet protection during intubation. The most notable disadvantage is the absence of a ventilation system within the hood covering. Conclusion: Modification of existing PPE may provide protection for health care workers during high-risk aerosolizing procedures such as endotracheal intubation. Although the integration of this medical equipment meets the immediate needs of an escalating crisis, further innovation is on the horizon. More research is needed to confirm the safety of modified PPE.

scholarly journals Vaccination willingness for COVID-19 among health care workers in Switzerland

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathrin Zuercher ◽  
Catrina Mugglin ◽  
Matthias Egger ◽  
Sandro Mueller ◽  
Michael Fluri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Workers ◽  
Vaccination Campaign ◽  
Vaccine Safety ◽  
Willingness To Accept ◽  
Medical Doctors ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Vaccination Hesitancy

Aims of the study: Vaccination is regarded as the most promising response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We assessed opinions towards COVID-19 vaccination, willingness to be vaccinated, and reasons for vaccination hesitancy among health care workers (HCWs). Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional, web-based survey among 3,793 HCWs in December 2020 in the Canton of Solothurn, Switzerland, before the start of the national COVID-19 vaccination campaign. Results: Median age was 43 years (interquartile range [IQR] 31-53), 2,841 were female (74.9%). 1,511 HCWs (39.8%) reported willingness to accept vaccination, while 1,114 (29.4%) were unsure, and 1,168 (30.8%) would decline vaccination. Among medical doctors, 76.1% were willing, while only 27.8% of nurses expressed willingness. Among 1,168 HCWs who would decline vaccination, 1,073 (91.9%) expressed concerns about vaccine safety and side effects. The willingness of HCWs to be vaccinated was associated with older age (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.97, 95%Cl 1.71-2.27) and having been vaccinated for influenza this year (aOR 2.70, 95%Cl 2.20-3.31). HCWs who reported a lack of confidence in government were less likely to be willing to be vaccinated (aOR 0.58, 95%Cl 0.40-0.84), and women were less willing to be vaccinated than men (OR 0.33 (0.28-0.38). Conclusion: Less than half of HCWs reported willingness to be vaccinated before the campaign start, but proportions varied greatly depending on the profession and workplace. Strategies with clear and objective messages that particularly address the concerns of HCWs are needed if their willingness to be vaccinated is to be increased.

scholarly journals COVID-19 Fear Among Health Care Workers (HCW) and Non-HCW in IGMC, Shimla: An Online Questionnaire-Based Prospective Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Girish K Sharma ◽  
Pamposh Raina ◽  
Kailash C Barwal ◽  
Manjeet Kumar ◽  
Vineet Kumar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Workers ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Fear And Anxiety

The unremitting COVID-19 pandemic is evoking anxiety, fear, panic, and socio-occupational stress among human population all around the globe. This cross-sectional study was planned to assess the fear and anxiety because of COVID-19 pandemic among health care professionals, patients, and general public in IGMC, Shimla. A cross-sectional, web-based survey was conducted in month of December 2020. COVID-19 fear questionnaire was used to assess fear among participants. A total of 162 responses were received. Ninety-five (41.35%) respondents were males and 67(58.64%) were females. Average total score of COVID-19 fear based on questionnaire was 17.71 among the participants. The majority of respondents 67(41.4%) were afraid of COVID-19, 53(32.7%) were neutral, whereas 42 (25.9%) were not afraid of COVID-19. Sixty-two (38.3%) responders were uncomfortable thinking about COVID-19, whereas, 67(41.4%) were not uncomfortable. Only 22 (13.6%) participants felt their hands clammy when they thought of COVID-19, 78 (48.15%) respondents were afraid of losing their life, 78 (48.15%) respondents disagreed with the question of being nervous or anxious to hear news and stories of COVID-19. Thirteen (8%) participants were informed of sleeplessness, and 22 (13.5%) reported palpitations due to COVID-19 fear. COVID-19 fear was evident in 65.15% of all males and 55.8% of all females’ respondents, respectively. Seventy percent of participants of age more than 40 years were afraid of COVID-19, whereas only 54.83% participants of less than 40 years had COVID-19 fear. COVID-19 fear was more evident among non-HCW (74.42%) as compared to HCW in whom it was seen in 53.03% participants. Rampaging Pandemic has ingrained fear and anxiety among non-HCW as well as health care workers. But undeterred by COVID-19 fear, majority of participants didn’t fear death and didn’t have other effects of fear. Despite (can be used) surging pandemic when fear of COVID-19 is soaring, HCW and non-HCW could work, think, and live.

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