On day one of HTN Summit 2020, we welcomed Dilshan Arawwawala, CCIO at Mid and South Essex Health Care Partnership to present a session discussing an application used to support staff Covid-19 testing.
Dilshan said: “The problem we were trying to resolve was access to Covid testing and receiving back results quickly.”
Dilshan explained that the process initially took around 9 days to be tested and to receive results, where the process involved various tasks to be carried out including calling through to the hospital, driving to the hospital to see the nurse for swabs and then the actual waiting period.
A Covid PCR Process Map was presented by Dilshan to explain what the platform would deliver;
“People could sign up to, enter profile information for risk-rated scoring, select a test, book into a mobile test centre, receive an email with all arrival information, and the tests would then be conducted and processed by the lab, then the result manually inputted into the system.”
The platform was subject to horizontal and vertical expansion which included allowing for Covid antibody testing;
“What’s already present in the platform, what’s missing, and what do we need to build, as well as determine any new risks that may arise and how we mitigate those risks.”
The platform was used to process 18,700 tests; “to date, we’ve done over 18,000 antibody tests and have launched new test centres, we have improved the user experience where cancelling and rescheduling appointments can take place.”
Dilshan finalised the presentation by talking through some of the lessons learnt, which include identifying problems and then build and procure to address problems; beware of scope creep – where timelines can be tight; don’t forget the governance; optimise continuously, and take a collaborative approach with those who have common interests.
The platform is now to be used to support their FLU vaccination campaign.
Watch the session here:
