RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 COVID-19 surge readiness: use cases demonstrating how hospitals leveraged digital identity access management for infection control and pandemic response
JF BMJ Health & Care Informatics
JO BMJ Health Care Inform
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP e100680
DO 10.1136/bmjhci-2022-100680
VO 29
IS 1
A1 George A Gellert
A1 Sean P Kelly
A1 Allen L Hsiao
A1 Brian Herrick
A1 Donna Weis
A1 Jeffrey Lutz
A1 Glynn Stanton
A1 Santos Bonilla
A1 Daniel Borgasano
A1 Matthew Erich
A1 Claire Reilly
A1 Daniel Johnston
YR 2022
UL http://informatics.bmj.com/content/29/1/e100680.abstract
AB 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. Interviews/communications with hospital clinical informatics leaders collected information describing the use case deployed.Results Eight innovative/valuable hospital use cases are described: symptom-free attestation by clinicians at shift start; detection of clinician exposure/contact tracing; reporting of clinician temperature checks; inpatient telehealth consults in isolation units; virtual visits between isolated patients and families; touchless single sign-on authentication; secure access enabled for rapid expansion of personnel working remotely; and monitoring of temporary worker attendance.Discussion No systematic, comprehensive survey of all implemented IAM client sites was conducted, and other use cases may be undetected. A standardised reporting/information sharing vehicle is needed whereby IAM use cases aiding facility pandemic response and infection control can be disseminated.Conclusions Clinical care, infection control and facility operations were improved using IAM solutions during COVID-19. Facility end-user innovation in how IAM solutions are deployed can improve infection control/patient safety, care delivery and clinical workflows during surges of epidemic infectious diseases.Data are available upon reasonable request. All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information. All data relevant to the study are included in the article, in the form of output of communications and interviews with hospital personnel. However, no data set was generated for this study.