March 30, 2020: Pediatric hospitals are playing a major role in the crisis and for today’s field report, we had Dr. Dan Nigrin, CIO of Boston Children’s Hospital join us to share his experiences. Dr. Nigrin starts by giving some insight into the spirit of collaboration between providers in Boston as efforts to scale increase. He advises as to the role of children’s hospitals in the crisis, and what Boston Children’s’ efforts to scale have looked like from an IT perspective too. We hear about the increase in COVID-19 cases in people below 30, and how pediatric hospitals should prepare to take more child patients from hospitals overloaded with adult COVID-19 cases. Dr. Nigrin also speaks about the amazing increase in virtual interactions his healthcare system has orchestrated, whether it be telehealth, in-person visits, or remote working, and the logistics required to enable this. Make sure you listen in for a brief but informative glimpse into the situation on the ground in Boston.

Key Points From This Episode:

• The situation in Boston which is ramping up and its implications for pediatric facilities.
• How children’s hospitals might take on child patients from overloaded regular hospitals.
• Statistics of patients affected younger than 30 and how pediatric facilities can help.
• The spirit of collaboration over competition that now penetrates Boston health systems.
• IT-related scaling initiatives: increases in telehealth, ambulatory patient visits, and more.
• How IT initiatives reduce the risk of COVID-19 infections to providers and patients.
• Logistics of how Dr. Nigrin’s teams scaled telehealth related to licensing and hardware.
• The use of Zoom and how it has enabled large scale communication without crashing.
• One thing Dr. Nigrin didn’t prepare for: enabling staff with laptops to work from home.
• Advice from Dr. Nigrin for pediatric hospitals to brace themselves to cope with more patients.