Infection Prevention

Reduce your team’s workload by automating the work process for infectious disease prevention, from assigning isolation tasks to performing follow-up screenings.

How it works:

The Infection Prevention application combines connectivity with process automation in Workflower to keep the Infection Prevention process on the right track:

As soon as the application receives lab results for a newly admitted patient, it uses a decision table to identify if further action is needed. You can configure this decision table yourself for your organisation.
If protective measures are required based on a positive result, nurses on the work floor will receive specific, relevant instructions, for example, on hand hygiene.
Does the patient need to be isolated? The ward where the patient is staying then receives a task to isolate the patient, including for how long.
If a single patient has multiple infections, with different isolation periods, the application applies the longest isolation period. It can do this because Workflower takes into account the cumulative results, rather than assigning two separate tasks.
If the patient changes wards, the new department then receives the isolation instructions.

Benefits

TIME-SAVINGS

The administrative workload of the Infection Prevention Team is noticeably reduced, freeing up time for other key tasks, such as informing and advising caregivers in the wards.

SECURE

If a patient tests positive for a certain infection, the caregivers are immediately notified so they can take the appropriate actions. This significantly reduces the chance of an infected patient slipping through the system.

EFFICIENT

Since your colleagues in the wards receive all the information they need about the type of isolation required and its duration, they no longer have to look it up themselves.

FLEXIBLE CUSTOMISATION

In the event of changes or new test codes, the team can easily customise and manage the decision table (with infection codes, results and associated actions) themselves.

INSIGHT

All activities are traceable: you know who performed which action at what time. Using this information, you can adjust work processes, if necessary.

RETURN

This application helps your employees save significant time, which they can then spend on tasks with greater added value for the patients. So you see a faster return on your investment.

With Workflower, you also get a tool that allows you to automate a wide range of existing and future processes—across all divisions of your healthcare enterprise.

Frequently asked questions

Which interfaces does the Infection Prevention application include?

The Infection Prevention application receives laboratory results from the Laboratory Information System (LIS).
The application receives ADT messages (patient movements, discharges, etc.) from the Hospital Information System (HIS).
The Infection Prevention application can also interface with or provide context integration for the Electronic Patient Record (EPR). The wards where the patients are staying can then view the isolation tasks directly in the EPR.

Can this application be used for other infection prevention work processes, such as MRSA?

MRSA requires a different approach, and we have developed a detailed flow to monitor the screening and treatment of patients who test positive for MRSA. The flow is, broadly, as follows:

When the hospital decides to do an MRSA test on a newly admitted patient, the application checks that the necessary screening actions have been taken, via an interface with the LIS. The system supports both culture and PCR tests, and can also interpret ad hoc MRSA screenings as well as routine screenings.
If a screening produces positive results, a decontamination procedure is initiated (except in the case of a chronically infected patient). The application then streamlines the following steps:
- The patient is isolated and treated for a number of days. Afterwards, the patient is screened again three times.
- If these screenings are negative all three times, the decontamination procedure is terminated. The nursing staff is informed and assigned a task to disinfect the room.
- If one of the results is positive, the decontamination procedure is repeated.
- The process is concluded when the patient is discharged or when the decontamination procedure is terminated.
- The patient’s MRSA status is registered at the patient level in Workflower, and can also be automatically updated in the EPR and the HIS.
A number of built-in control mechanisms ensure that an escalation procedure is started when the standard flow is not followed, for example, if no sample has been taken within 24 hours of admission or when laboratory results are not received on time.
One key advantage of the Infection Prevention application is that you can automate the entire reporting procedure to the public authorities, eliminating a great deal of manual work.

Read about how Jan Yperman Hospital automates this process with Workflower

What do we need in order to use the Patient/Contact Creation application?

As an Amaron customer, you can run the application on your Amaron application server (the same server you use for Amaron Watch and Workflower).

You don’t have an Amaron application server yet? Then we will be happy to set one up for you. We will provide you with all specifications when you place your order, and further explanations during the project kick-off meeting.

What technology does the application use?

This application has been built using the Amaron Workflower platform: a low-code platform that allows you to configure and automate all kinds of processes across your hospital’s software applications. Workflower is not limited to the clinical domain, but can also be used in administration, logistics, HR or a combination of areas.

The Workflower applications integrate with the Amaron Connect platform (EAI) to enable the seamless exchange of data with your hospital’s information systems and with the data platforms of the national and regional authorities, or other external applications, for example, AI.