An analysis of virtual triage utilization by pregnant women prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective: This analysis describes the use patterns of web-based virtual triage (VT) by pregnant patients before and during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how the pandemic influenced frequency of VT use, nature of symptoms reported, and the associated implications for maternal healthcare delivery.

Methods: An online survey of 36,910 patients who reported pregnancy was completed between January 1, 2019 and June 30, 2022. The data were segmented into six month periods to allow comparative analyses of usage frequency and changes in initial complaints over the study period, with particular emphasis on the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Challenges Meeting 21st Century Cures Act Patient Identity Interoperability and Information Blocking Rules.

Objective: Gather insights into healthcare organization (HCO) preparedness for new 21st Century Cures Act information blocking disincentives and challenges in achieving greater accuracy /interoperability of patient identity/data.

Methods: Survey of 197 U.S.

How Virtual Triage Can Improve Patient Experience and Satisfaction: A Narrative Review and Look Forward.

Objective: To complete a review of the literature on patient experience and satisfaction as relates to the potential for virtual triage (VT) or symptom checkers to enhance and enable improvements in these important health care delivery objectives.

Methods: Review and synthesis of the literature on patient experience and satisfaction as informed by emerging evidence, indicating potential for VT to favorably impact these clinical care objectives and outcomes.

Results/conclusions: VT enhances potential clinical effectiveness through early detection and referral, can reduce avoidable care delivery due to late clinical presentation, and can divert primary care needs to more clinically appropriate outpatient settings rather than high-acuity emergency departments.

A multinational survey of patient utilization of and value conveyed through virtual symptom triage and healthcare referral.

Objective: To describe the use patterns, impact and derived patient-user value of a mobile web-based virtual triage/symptom checker.

Methods: Online survey of 2,113 web-based patient-users of a virtual triage/symptom checker was completed over an 8-week period. Questions focused on triage and care objectives, pre- and post-triage care intent, frequency of use, value derived and satisfaction with virtual triage.

COVID-19 surge readiness: use cases demonstrating how hospitals leveraged digital identity access management for infection control and pandemic response.

Background: Surging volumes of patients with COVID-19 and the high infectiousness of SARS-CoV-2 challenged hospital infection control/safety, staffing, care delivery and operations as few crises have. Imperatives to ensure security of patient information, defend against cybersecurity threats and accurately identify/authenticate patients and staff were undiminished, which fostered creative use cases where hospitals leveraged identity access and management (IAM) technologies to improve infection control and minimise disruption of clinical and administrative workflows.

Methods: Working with a leading IAM solution provider, implementation personnel in the USA and UK identified all hospitals/health systems where an innovative use of IAM technology improved facility infection control and pandemic response management.

No Retrenchment From Employee Empowerment: Employer Wellness Imperatives and Opportunities Emerging From the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The impact of two years of the COVID-19 pandemic on the relationship between employers and employees are explored, including changing employee sensibilities with respect to future employment, work-life balance, remote and flexible work, and the great resignation. Lasting work changes induced by the pandemic expand employee empowerment and demand for greater work flexibility. Flexibility no longer provides employers a unique selling point and hiring/retention competitiveness - it has become an expected standard.

Public health nonfeasance, misfeasance and malfeasance in the U.S. Government Response to COVID-19.

In the midst of the political leadership crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, a framework of public health nonfeasance, misfeasance and malfeasance is described in order to define, categorize and understand the various forms of public health performance failure of the U.S. government during the COVID-19 outbreak response thus far.

Electronic Health Record Workstation Single Sign-on: A Quantification of Time Liberated for Nurses to Care for Patients.

Objective: The aim of this study was to quantify the impact of electronic health record (EHR) workstation single sign-on (SSO) for nurses.

Background: SSO was implemented in 19 hospitals for expedited EHR access.

Methods: Login durations before and after SSO implementation were compared, and the financial value of nursing time liberated from keyboard was estimated.

Reducing pediatric asthma hospital length of stay through evidence-based quality improvement and deployment of computerized provider order entry.

Evaluate the impact of multi-component quality improvement for pediatric asthma care focusing on serial use of an evidence-based clinical pathway via paper order sets, pathway integration into computerized provider order entry (CPOE), use of a clinical respiratory score (CRS) and a discharge checklist. Outcomes were assessed over three intervention periods and 50 months on: time to beta-agonist and steroid first administration, frequency of readmissions and hospital length of stay. A general linear model estimated mean log(LOS) over time and between study periods.

Reintroduction of freshwater macroinvertebrates: challenges and opportunities.

Species reintroductions - the translocation of individuals to areas in which a species has been extirpated with the aim of re-establishing a self-sustaining population - have become a widespread practice in conservation biology. Reintroduction projects have tended to focus on terrestrial vertebrates and, to a lesser extent, fishes. Much less effort has been devoted to the reintroduction of invertebrates into restored freshwater habitats.

Double Trouble: Transapical Transcatheter Replacement of the Aortic and Mitral Valves in a Single Operation.

This case represents the first reported simultaneous TAVR and TMVR for native aortic and mitral stenosis performed via the transapical approach.

Clinical impact and value of workstation single sign-on.

Background: CHRISTUS Health began implementation of computer workstation single sign-on (SSO) in 2015. SSO technology utilizes a badge reader placed at each workstation where clinicians swipe or "tap" their identification badges.

Objective: To assess the impact of SSO implementation in reducing clinician time logging in to various clinical software programs, and in financial savings from migrating to a thin client that enabled replacement of traditional hard drive computer workstations.