Corona in hospitals and nursing homes: Protection for nursing staff through contactless patient communication via App
December 2020 — The coronavirus continues to keep the world in suspense. Avoiding personal contact is still the most important factor in containing the COVID19 pandemic. Because the virus is far from being defeated or under control. Although global measures to protect against infection have improved some areas, the numbers are still rising or are not falling to a safe level.
What has not been possible in all professions so far: reducing contacts.
In order to protect oneself and others, nothing is currently more effective than avoiding personal encounters. This is what virologists recommend, and politicians are reacting accordingly. In most countries of the world there are so-called lockdowns, some of them of indefinite duration. The social life is thereby considerably restricted. But people in the health and care sector must continue working under difficult conditions.
Everyone should be able to protect themselves at work.
This is precisely the challenge since we cannot completely do without contacts in all areas. Of course, this works quite well, for example, when shopping, at events, on public transport and in many other activities. But what is the situation in particular regarding the treatment and care of patients in hospitals and for residents of nursing and assistant living homes?
More and more nurses, doctors and other professionals are becoming infected during the exercise of their profession.
This can be extremely dangerous to the health of those affected. In addition, they are unable to work as employees due to the disease either directly or because of possible quarantine. This results in an additional considerable shortage of skilled workers. A good example is Germany, where there has been a shortage of skilled workers for years. The ongoing pandemic is making this problem much worse. However, it is impossible to completely avoid contacts in these areas. A partial reduction would be possible, however.
Immediate measures in digitization can help to stop the spread of the virus in clinics and nursing homes.
With simple digital means — a novel app — unnecessary contacts can still be reduced to a humane and sensible minimum. The top priority must always be the smooth care of patients and those in need of care, and the older generation in particular must be equally protected. If an elderly or previously ill person were to be infected by unnecessary contact, the goal would clearly be missed.
It may take time until all are vaccinated, but action can still be taken.
Even the prospect of a vaccine will not solve this problem in the foreseeable future; it will take too long to vaccinate a high percentage of the population. This has already been strongly advocated by politicians. Contact restrictions to reduce the risk of infection will be with us for a long time to come.
An app can help hospitals, old people’s homes and nursing homes.
Being able to communicate contactless with patients and residents would considerably defuse the situation on wards and in homes. However, conventional messenger services are not designed for this, not even in terms of health security. Moreover, not everyone can handle them. To eliminate these problems, the company ClinicAll International has developed a digital application that specifically supports nursing and medical staff. This Communicator-App helps to avoid unnecessary contacts. Patients and residents can contact the staff at any time, express wishes and make inquiries.
Caregivers save valuable time and reduce the number of potentially infectious contacts.
The patient simply expresses his or her concern via the intuitively operated App. Possible requests are already clearly predefined so that they can be selected with just a few clicks. Or the person requests a video call. Professionals can thus determine the order in which they smoothly process the patient’s requests. This eliminates unnecessary walking distances and contacts, without neglecting patients.
Reducing the risk of infection without sacrificing care is the order of the day.
At the same time, standards must be maintained and improved in the long term. Information about the Communicator App can be found at www.clinicall.com. Or contact info@clinicall.com or +49 (0) 2131 384 4324 directly with your question.