occupational and employee health IT news

Northwell Health uses employee health IT solution to document and manage first US COVID vaccination 

Fort Wayne, Ind., December 16, 2020 — Enterprise Health drew praise this week from Northwell Health for its nimble delivery of essential health IT functionality to support the health system’s COVID-19 vaccination program. After a quick ramp up, New York’s largest health system used the occupational and employee health software to document and manage the administration of the first vaccine dose in the United States to Sandra Lindsay, the director of critical care nursing at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens. 

 

Dana Flitsch, senior manager, product services & management, human resources technology at Northwell Health described the challenge of preparing for this historic milestone when there were more questions than answers. “We didn’t know vaccine release dates, whether we would receive vaccines from a single or multiple manufacturers, if the vaccines would be single or multi-dose, how many doses we would receive, or what the demand would be from our employees.” 

 

Even missing crucial information, Enterprise Health, which is used by health systems, corporate and government agency clients to manage occupational health and compliance, primary care and employee engagement, developed a new COVID-19 vaccination workflow largely based on existing functionality used to manage large-scale employee flu vaccination events. The Enterprise Health team worked closely with its client base, including Northwell Health, to rapidly configure a COVID-19 vaccine protocol flexible enough to support several vaccines, a variety of protocols, and administration guidelines that vary by state and client organization including legal and consent forms and immunization registry requirements.   

 

Northwell and other Enterprise Health health system clients are using the solution’s COVID-19 immunization functionality to:

  • manage and prioritize vaccine administration to employee populations using rules-based health surveillance panels based on work location, department job function and role, age and other pre-determined criteria;
  • track health surveillance based on single-dose and multi-dose vaccine formats;
  • generate automated invitation and reminder emails and SMS messages to notify employees they are eligible for a vaccine;
  • direct employees to a portal to self schedule a vaccine and complete electronic consent or declination forms; and
  • simplify documentation of vaccinations by clinicians with a mass injection screen and alert clinicians of missing consents prior to vaccination.

“If we were in the same position as we were in April, where we were building homegrown databases to track all of this, I don’t think we could have ever gotten where we are at such lightning speed to be ready to start vaccinating,” added Flitsch. “I can’t emphasize enough how having the right IT technology can spring you forward in getting this done.”

 

Jeff Donnell, president of Enterprise Health said the company is also helping its large corporate and government agency clients prepare for receipt of vaccines as the supply becomes available.  

 

“At Enterprise Health, we take great pride in helping occupational and employee health professionals as they work largely behind the scenes to keep employees present, productive, safe and healthy. The COVID pandemic puts a fine point on the critical importance of the work our clients do, and we applaud Northwell and our entire client community on their steady leadership and commitment to employee health.”

 

To learn more about Enterprise Health’s COVID-19 mass immunization functionality, watch a replay of the COVID-19 vaccine webinar here.

 

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[30-Minute Webinar] How Random Is Your Random Drug Testing Program

 

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About Enterprise Health 

Enterprise Health is one of the largest providers of occupational health software in the world, with customers in over 50 countries and nearly a dozen languages, serving several million employees globally. Enterprise Health is the only comprehensive employee health record that combines occupational health and compliance and employee engagement built on a certified EHR platform — delivering a complete occupational health IT experience on a single, highly-interoperable, cloud-based solution — equipping enterprise clients and their employees for a healthier future. For more information, please visit http://www.enterprisehealth.com.