Grady Memorial Hospital uses LiveProcess event log for emergency healthcare management

Oct 21 2009

Facilities like Atlanta, Georgia-based Grady Memorial Hospital are taking extra precautions, including leveraging technology for emergency healthcare management, in anticipation of a H1N1 surge this fall.

Like many hospitals, Grady found the wave of H1N1 cases in the spring manageable. “The number of ER visits we had were minimal – maybe eight a month,” said Charlotte S. Clark, CHSP, CHEC-III, emergency management manager. As a regional coordinating hospital (RCH), Grady was also charged with distributing Tamiflu antiviral flu medicine. “As a RCH however, we were heavily impacted by the first wave since the CDC shipped Tamiflu directly to us to roll out to the other participating health care organizations in our region,” she added.

During the spring H1N1 wave, Clark and her team used a web-based emergency preparedness and incident management platform to communicate with hospitals under its regional charge. The communication tool in the platform, developed by Verona, NJ-based LiveProcess, is an “event log” that emergency management professionals use to manage and share information.

To help Grady Memorial Hospital and other customers, LiveProcess mobilized a nationwide H1N1 event log on October 1. The event log includes H1N1-related news from local, federal and global agencies and gives users the ability to exchange information such as current H1N1 status and available supplies and inventory.

Clark said she expects the LiveProcess event log will be an important tool in the coming weeks, again using it to report bed availability across the region, keep tabs on patient surges and monitor supplies. “With LiveProcess, we can quickly access data and be able to edit and track as needed when loaned equipment goes out,” she said. “Plus, we can use the event log to arrange for the pickup and delivery of needed supplies or equipment, and communicate via phone, text or e-mail with key local and state health officials, all at the push of a button.

“The bottom line is this: We are on the front lines of any health care crisis,” Clark said. “Having the ability to communicate and exchange information in a timely, effective and accurate way is critical to our mission of meeting this or any other large-scale situation head-on. It’s what we do best.”

LiveProcess previously participated in the largest U.S. pandemic flu exercise in history with 190 facilities of the Georgia Hospital Association and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

http://www.liveprocess.com.