Kingston Health Sciences Centre Builds Custom COVID-19 Risk Order Set As Normal Operations Resume
As COVID-19 cases continue to decline and Ontario settles into Step 3 of its reopening plan, risk assessment protocols are critical to helping hospitals across the province safely resume regular inpatient and outpatient operations.
Though restrictions are relaxing, COVID-19 variants are still spreading. As of June, there are five variants of concern: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and more recently Lambda, with each appearing to spread quicker and more easily than other variants.[1] Hospitals must implement protocols to carefully monitor risk for potential outbreaks and remain ahead of the pandemic.
Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC), a top-ranked research and teaching hospital serving southeastern Ontario, is leading the charge in effective risk assessment as operations resume. The hospital has leveraged Think Research’s Order Sets to develop its own customized COVID-19-specific risk stratification order set to ensure anyone entering KHSC sites are properly screened for COVID-19 and treated if necessary. The screening tool was used more than 530 times in July, and nearly 4,000 times throughout 2021.
The order set created by KHSC is now available in the extensive content library available through the Order Sets platform, facilitating easy knowledge and insight sharing among other hospitals using Order Sets. This network effect helps standardize care and enables all hospitals to learn from proven best practices and implement the protocols needed to effectively manage their risk as operations resume.
Risk assessment Order Sets are also available alongside Think’s COVID-19 acute care clinical content, which is constantly updated by our experts with the latest information on the disease. In fact, our COVID-19 content has been updated more than 17 times since the onset of the pandemic to ensure hospitals can ensure their response aligns with the latest medical knowledge and health protocols.
Order Sets helped hospitals navigate the pandemic
As the pandemic continues, our understanding of the virus, how it spreads, and how best to treat it is constantly evolving. Order Sets are an invaluable tool for acute care hospitals and clinicians, as they ensure the latest evidence-based knowledge and treatment protocols are always at their fingertips. Having access to accurate, up-to-date information reduces errors and enables clinicians with varying levels of experience to confidently diagnose and treat patients, all while standardizing care within health organizations — an approach that’s proven effective in treating COVID-19 and reducing health spending waste.
Assess your COVID-19 risk
Though COVID-19 cases are steadily declining thanks in part to strong vaccination numbers — as of this writing, more than 9 million Ontarians and 21 million Canadians are fully vaccinated — the pandemic is not over. Standardized risk assessment protocols are vital to enabling hospitals from coast to coast to safely resume operations as restrictions roll back. Book a demo today to learn how Order Sets can help your acute care organization effectively transition to post-COVID care.
