Southeast Health Gets Amazon Donation to Help With Covid-19

DOTHAN, Ala. (WTVY) -Southeast health is one of the first hospitals to receive a donation from amazon that’s geared towards overcoming challenges of COVID-19.

The device will help improve patient care. The new technology allows nurses to check on their patients virtually and prioritize their comfort while also keeping themselves distanced. Through this partnership with Aiva Health and Amazon… Southeast Health has received 99 Echo Shows.

“The idea was to figure out a way to engage our patients and still be able to communicate with them without having to use so much of our protective personal equipment,” Southeast Health Chief Information Officer, Eric Daffron said.

The echos are to be used specifically for COVID-19 patients and is set up in all the rooms on the Coronavirus floor. Maintaining patient privacy is a top priority.

“We use the drop in feature that’s on the amazon echoes, its all internal to our organization so none of the communications go back to amazons web services or anything so everything stays contained in our network,” Daffron said.

The nurses use it for their hourly rounds when it’s not necessary that they are with the patient in person. The patients have responded well to being able to see nurses full faces not covered by PPE even if it is over a screen. This also allows the nurse to spend a greater amount of time with the patient since it is socially distanced.

Daffron said, “We know that that human touch is important to patients and it’s a scary time you know they are not allowed to have visitors in the room sometimes and we know they want to see who that caregiver is not just somebody in a gown, in a mask, and goggles and a face shield so this allows them to see who that person is.”

Southeast Health is in the process of working out the logistics of using Amazon Fire Tablets to connect patients with their families.

“We see lots of new technology starting to come out specifically geared at continuing to deliver care at a distance so to speak,” Daffron said.

The Fire Tablets should be implemented very soon.

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