OSF HealthCare’s COVID-19 Digital Response

Michelle Conger, MSW, Chief Strategy Officer, OSF HealthCare and CEO, Saint Gabriel Digital Health; Jennifer Junis, RN, MSN, SVP, OSF, Saint Gabriel Digital Health; Becky Buchen, SVP OSF Innovation; John Vozenilek, MD, FACEP, VP & Chief Medical Officer, OSF Innovation and Saint Gabriel Digital Health; and Melinda Cooling, DNP, MBA, APN, NEA-BC, VP Advanced Practice, Chief Clinician Executive, Saint Gabriel Digital Health, OSF Healthcare.

Illinois reported the state’s first COVID-19 cases on March 10, 2020. By March 16, OSF Digital Health introduced an AI-enabled chatbot that screens individuals for the virus, and connects symptomatic people to an operational COVID-19 Nurse triage hotline. A third digital connection offered a texting solution to provide guidance, education and a symptom tracker for COVID-19. On April 11, a state partnership was announced for the first OSF Pandemic Health Worker (PHW) program inclusive of eight pods across the state of Illinois that provides digital screening and delivers care kits to clients who enroll in the 16-day program from Chicago to Alton. OSF Digital Health, in partnership with OSF Innovation, delivered unique solutions with agility. Working with an OSF HealthCare partner, the organization also launched the use of a new COVID-19 surveillance app that supports rapid decision making using machine-learning technology. Additionally, another e-triage app risk stratifies patients, identifying individuals at high risk for hospitalization. This allows OSF HealthCare to pinpoint those who could benefit from the PHW program. PHW clients that may have deteriorating symptoms can quickly be enrolled in the Acute COVID @ Home program with additional observation including blood pressure and pulse ox monitoring. The final opportunity realized with the Digital response is the launch of the OSF Digital Hospital at Home that allows the Ministry to decompress their hospitals for potential Pandemic surge needs.