Severance Hospital is converting the existing face-to-face medical care system to a digital communication system in response to the prolonged COVID-19.
Junseok Lim, the Chief of Medical Information Team, Yonsei University Health System announced on the 7th that Severance Hospital will introduce a video rounding system between inpatients and medical service providers in the hospital.
The Medical Information Team has recently completed the pilot operation of a video rounding service for inpatients using a mobile app ‘MySeverance’, and plans to expand it to inpatients at Severance Hospital.
Usually at a rounding, a provider visits his or her inpatient as scheduled, examines the patient's condition, checks various test results, and explains a treatment plan. However, when the number of inpatients goes over dozens, a doctor takes lots of time to move around and a patient does not have enough time to hear details. Moreover, the spread of COVID-19 has increased the risk of infection.
[Picture] A patient and a doctor can communicate virtually for the rounding. When a patient logs in the app ‘MySeverance’ as scheduled, details can be discussed about his or her current condition and future treatment plans with a provider via video.
In the video rounding system, when a provider schedules a rounding time through the hospital information system, a message is automatically sent to a patient or a caregiver. When a patient accesses ‘MySeverance’ as scheduled, he or she can meet with his or her doctor virtually.
With the video rounding system, the attending doctor can spend more time on his or her patients with traveling time reduced. A rounding is also available even at night or on weekends. Patients' satisfaction with the virtual rounding was found high as they could hear more details because the provider’s traveling time was saved.
The Medical Information Team has recently employed a digital communication system in a full swing, including the video rounding system.
MS Teams is also used in a multidisciplinary consultation for personalized care and in conferences. In a normal context of multidisciplinary treatments and conferences, dozens of participants discuss the optimal treatment for patients. However, due to the spread of COVID-19, those multidisciplinary consultations and conferences have also been drastically reduced.
With the MS Teams video conferencing system, providers can discuss the best direction for the optimal treatment, sharing the patient's medical records and various imagings in a virtual conference.
In addition, the digitalized performance among providers has been strengthened.
Providers should prescribe medications or treat patients depending on the patient’s frequently changing condition. Therefore, it is necessary for medical service providers to share real-time work instructions and treatment status together with attending doctors, specialists, and nurses.
In the new digital communication channel, once a provider enters a test or treatment necessary for a patient through MS Teams, the instruction is shared with other related members through Teams To-Do app or Planner on their smartphone. Other members can check the key information including priority, progress, and implementation in real time.
It is reported that the communication channel is particularly useful in delivering instructions to interns. Following the satisfaction survey, immediate responses are more available than the ones in the current phone communication between nurses and interns, and they can prioritize work based on the importance and share real-time progress. It is said to have high effects in performance improvement.
“The digital communication system using MS Teams enables a variety of virtual communication spaces among various occupational groups, so patients can receive safer and more accurate treatment with more details even in the difficult situation of the pandemic,” said Junseok Lim, the Chief of Medical Information Team. “Severance Hospital is trying to lead a new digital medical culture suitable for the new normal,” he added.
