Enabling video communication with isolated patients to keep care workers safe

Keeping health care workers safe without running out of Personal Protective Equipment​

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) has been a very scarce resource due to that more or less all countries in the world, at the same time, were purchasing PPE for employees in hospitals and group livings. The need is massive and we have all have read about the risk of running out of PPE for health care workers to stay safe.

Digital solutions can reduce the usage of PPE. The problem with many digital solutions is that they either take too much time to implement, or that they are too advanced to handle for persons with limited knowledge in the digital area.

In addition, many of the hospitals and intensive care departments has been set up on a temporary basis and created for a short period of time. Hospitals further has a strong requirement for security, which puts restrictions on how to build new solutions.

Enabling video communication between isolated patients and health care workers​

One way to reduce the need for PPE is to let health care personnel communicate with and monitor isolated patients without entering their room.

With the iotcomms.io platform, it’s easy to put together a mobile solution for surveillance and communication, that can be moved to different rooms or patients.

The proposed solution enables video calls from outside a room of an isolated patient, so that the doctor can communicate with a patient or a colleague health care worker inside the room. This will not only reduce the need for PPE, but also improve time efficiency when video can substitute entering the room.

Secure video connection between the health care worker’s mobile phone and a camera inside the patient’s room​

A QR code sticker is placed outside the room of an isolated patient. When a health care worker scans the code with his mobile phone (or another device), the web browser in the phone is launched and an encrypted video connection is established directly to a camera placed inside the room.

The health care worker must provide an authentication code before the video call is established to ensure security. As an alternative, the QR code can be provided digitally for other medical personell to access.