In the Northeast, we’re excited to highlight a unique COVID-19 project recently undertaken by our colleagues at the University of Vermont Health Network (UVMHN) and University of Vermont Medical Center, shared by UVMHN’s Network Director of Telehealth Services, Todd Young.
Involving members of multiple teams at several locations, they have put iPads placed in clamp-on stands in all the COVID-19 patient rooms and nursing stations. The iPads were first designed at the Network’s Central Vermont Medical Center location by Dr. Stinnett-Donnelly and Earnest Escobedo.
These iPads are Zoom configured to auto-answer in the patient rooms when called from the nursing stations, allowing the nurses to video visit with the patients as often as desired while saving PPE and mitigating exposure to the virus. This iPad set-up is also able to support physician visits and family visits to the patients.
All this was made possible with some creative thinking, creative sourcing of parts, and hard work by program staff and provider team members on the various floors of their large network, along with including departments new to the telehealth conversation, such as their Supply Chain Team helping to source iPads. Not done yet, the UVMHN team is now working on deploying similar configurations on the ICU and Pediatric floors.
They hope this project will serve as a model of technological advancement for future inpatient settings.