Competing hospitals in Tampa Bay are teaming up with a tech company to share as much data on coronavirus patients as possible.
Local hospitals including Tampa General Hospital, AdventHealth, BayCare Health System and Manatee Memorial Hospital have partnered with Tampa-based analytical software company SME Solutions Group Inc. to share data among 51 total hospitals.
“Today more than ever, data integrity and data trust are of the utmost importance to ensure proper communication and to improve the speed of decision making," Chris Moyer, president and CEO of SME, said in a statement. "At a time when the balance between speed and accuracy is crucial, making critical data readily available, accessible, and reliable to these hospitals is a must."
SME created and deployed a cloud environment that allowed hospital officials to access the data while ensuring privacy and security protocols are still followed.
The dashboard shows the number of patients a hospital has, its ability to take in new patients and breaks down which patients are positive for COVID-19.
"This new collaborative allows health care systems that typically compete for market share to join forces and battle the COVID-19 pandemic together," a Thursday release from TGH states.
The dashboard, called the COVID-19 Florida West Coast Regional Data Exchange, also highlights the resources at each hospital and negative-pressure rooms.
“As we navigate day by day, through this public health crisis ... this dashboard is critical in helping us potentially save lives," Dr. Peter Chang, TGH vice president of care transitions, said in a statement. "It gives us situational awareness of resources that are available across the region to take care of COVID-19 patients. It breaks down silos between competing hospitals for this collaborative community effort.”
The data exchange will:
- Provide number of patients suspected of COVID-19 but are awaiting test results
- Provide number of available negative-pressure hospital rooms, ICU beds and ventilators
- Incorporate a forecasting model developed by IBM to anticipate COVID-19 patients in the intensive care units
"It’s a great use of technology, but even more than that, it’s a powerful tool of collaboration to benefit our community,” TGH President and CEO John Couris said a statement.
