How Health Systems Are Mobilizing Emergency Action Plans

Sara Vaezy, chief digital strategy and business development officer, Providence St. Joseph Health

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. health care facilities face a tsunami of rapid-fire change. Hospital marketing leaders, historically charged with promoting signature service lines, are rapidly transforming their role and their tactics to meet this unprecedented challenge.

Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Washington, cared for the first confirmed COVID-19 patient in the U.S. on January 20, 2020. That made Providence St. Joseph Health the nation’s initial health system to mobilize its Emergency Operations Command Center.

“I’ve been doing daily huddles since February and it’s been all-hands-on-deck, with activities occurring in every domain of Providence,” says Sara Vaezy, Providence’s chief digital strategy and business development officer.

Vaezy’s team turned to technology to help balance the influx of questions and patients from community members. They worked with Microsoft Azure Stack to stand up a coronavirus assessment bot on the system’s public-facing COVID-19 website. The bot asks patients questions about their symptoms, travel history, and interaction with any people who have tested positive for COVID-19. The answers determine which patients need a higher level of care or further evaluation.

Providence also uses video visits to help triage patients. “We’ve seen 10 to 15 times greater utilization of video visits since the outbreak began,” Vaezy says. In addition, Providence’s team uses the secure messaging platform Twistle to connect providers with COVID-19 patients who are self-monitoring at home.

Read the full article now and learn more from Vaezy and other experts: Marketing, Communication Experts Share Reflections from the Frontlines of the COVID-19 Pandemic

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