Sources: Las Provincias / La Vanguardia / El confidencial
With vaccines already underway, but with COVID-19 still present in many hospitals, some of the most worrisome data from the pandemic are beginning to emerge; since in addition to the direct victims, the collateral effect is evident in many patients whose non-essential surgeries have been cancelled or postponed.
These surgeries have increasingly swollen the waiting lists to the point of reaching figures that are difficult to assume for the Spanish National Health System, which is severely impacted.
An example of this is the latest data offered by a specialist like the President of the Spanish Association of Surgeons (AEC), Salvador Morales-Conde, or the president of the Spanish Society of Anaesthesiology, Resuscitation and Pain Therapy (SEDAR), Javier García, who explains that the total number of non-essential surgeries suspended is estimated at 70% more than in previous years. In addition, both emphasise the consequences of these delays on the health of patients, as in the case of cardiac pathologies where mortality has increased notably from 4.2% in 2019 to 8.2% in 2020.
Surgical delays will require an enormous effort, as they both state that to return to normality and pre-pandemic surgical standards, the activity would have to be increased by 30%. And once achieved this figure, it would take more than 48 weeks to reverse the situation.
Various action plans have emerged that involve increasing resources and staff, opening operating theatres in the evenings and at weekends, and even collaboration between public and private healthcare.
Yet, this is precisely the best opportunity to test the worth of digital tools. Multiple organizations, including the European Union itself, are committed to the technological transformation of the healthcare system as a solution, not in the short term, but as a vital reinforcement for professionals who strive every day to protect us all and on whom the responsibility of return to pre-pandemic figures cannot fall again.
How to increase surgical performance by at least 10% through technology?
The main objective of MYSPHERA is to improve the efficiency of resources, optimize the workflow of healthcare professionals and, therefore, improve patient care; an objective that has been achieved through the ORvital system.
An intelligent and multipurpose platform for the orchestration of the surgical process that has already offered respectable results in those centers where it has been implemented.
The results achieved at the Vall d’Ebron Hospital stand out, where, after one year with the system operational, it was achieved:
– To go from 70% surgical performance to 80%
– An increase of 10% which is equivalent to a year of 13 months
How is this achieved?
Through an RTLS – IoT system composed of three fundamental elements:
– Surgical scheduler: A system that automates a large part of surgical scheduling. A technology capable of reducing preparation and organisation time and reducing the workload for professionals.
– Process Orchestrator: The system not only makes it possible to visualise the tasks and processes in progress but is also capable of automating tasks between the different work teams involved in the surgical block.
– Virtual Waiting Room: Less interruption of the professionals by relatives who are kept constantly informed through panels and an App.
