New COVID-19 screening app for LTC providers

GATINEAU, QC and OTTAWA – Macadamian Technologies and Bruyère, which provides complex continuing care, long-term care and other medical services, have collaborated to deliver a COVID-19 screening solution that can be completed by hospital staff in less than 15 seconds.

The solution is a dramatic improvement over previous forms of screening that have been used, including paper forms and Excel files, and which take much longer to complete – staff often come to work early just to get through the screening process. The new app is designed to get healthcare workers into their facilities and caring for patients more quickly.

As well, the Macadamian app captures critical data for reporting and analytics that can be passed on to public health authorities.

“With everything that our healthcare workers are juggling in the response to COVID-19, we are looking for ways to remove all of the barriers we can. Making it easier for them to get into the building every day is one of the small things we can do to help and show our gratitude,” said Guy Chartrand (pictured), president and CEO of Bruyère.

Bruyère is unique in that it is both an academic hospital and an LTC provider. The new solution has been developed to scale support to all long-term care residences across Ontario and the rest of Canada.

“We are extremely proud to be able to help. I believe for the foreseeable future we need to do things differently as individuals and employers to be mindful of the experience of employees who need to deliver essential services face to face,” said Frédéric Boulanger, CEO of Macadamian Technologies.

The COVID-19 mobile screening application is a valuable tool in the battle against this virus. By providing results in real-time it can enable more informed decision-making for the organization and the system and improve the experiences of those on the front lines.

For its part, Macadamian designs and develops custom digital health and connected medical device applications to improve healthcare.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an urgent need for healthcare providers both in long-term care and in hospital settings to have the ability to assess and monitor the health status of their front line workers to both mitigate risks and respond accordingly.

Screening is a primary line of defense in keeping COVID-19 out of Long-Term Care and hospital settings, yet the screening process can be time-consuming. Be it on paper or on a web-based solution it adds an extra step to the start of the shift at a highly stressful time. Lining up for screening also creates challenges with respect to adherence to physical distancing within an essential workforce.

“As a member of the Ontario Centers for Learning Research and Innovation in Long-Term Care (LTC), we see significant potential for LTC and other healthcare facilities across the country to deploy a solution like this, removing barriers for their staff and getting better access to real-time data,” said Heidi Sveistrup, CEO & chief scientific officer of the Bruyère Research Institute and VP, research and academic affairs.