As the severity of the pandemic becomes clearer, Columbia and NewYork-Presbyterian swiftly shift to prioritizing telehealth care. This week alone, our team conducts 300 video visits, a 1300% increase over the previous week. All nonessential employees begin telecommuting, as the IT and operations teams work in tandem to fortify the existing infrastructure and make sure there are as few interruptions as possible for employees. All elective procedures are suspended across the entire NYP system, leaving providers and patients in a new kind of limbo.
March 16
All elective CUIMC and NYP procedures, including both inpatient and outpatient, are suspended until further notice.
Anticipating the coming shelter-in-place order, our IT team continues to optimize remote work for all members of our department.
March 18
The department conducts 300 video visits across all subspecialties, up from 21 the previous week, a 1300% increase.
Families First Coronavirus Response Act signed into law.
March 19
US State Department raises the global travel advisory to Level 4: Do Not Travel.
March 20
Mayor de Blasio declares New York City the epicenter of the crisis in the US.
March 21
NJ Governor Phil Murphy issues stay-at-home order.
March 22
Women’s Mental Health @Ob/Gyn begins offering “moments to reset” for the department, a chance for providers and staff to reflect and decompress.
The IT team always has one goal: to give the department the tools necessary to accomplish the work that must be done, and then to provide ongoing support for those tools. In the weeks leading up to the shelter-in-place order, our team discusses and determines the best way to help everyone access the necessary systems, based on factors like our available system resources, and whether staff are utilizing medical center-issued equipment or personal devices. It is essential that we keep our staff connected without overtaxing our available infrastructure.
Once we begin working from home, we field calls from staff adjusting to working in a new environment. Many users have only worked one way for many years but now have to think in new parameters about their workflow, using a completely new set of tools. As complex as our systems can be, it is encouraging to hear about our colleagues finding creative ways to work from home, like connecting laptops to TVs to use as a second monitor. It reminds us that technology can help us accomplish more than it ever has before.
Daniel Hill, IT support in the Department of Ob/Gyn at CUIMC