Healthcare workers are under strain as Covid-19 spreads. Dozens of such people around the country have already tested positive for the virus, according to various news reports and public health organizations. The best health systems have measures in place to manage their newly ill workforce. “The . . . big thing that people are very concerned with is, ‘Do we have enough personally protective equipment?” says Brian Garibaldi, head of Johns Hopkins University’s biocontainment unit. “We’re starting to really try to limit people—if you don’t need to be in the room, you’re not going to put on the gear.”
Johns Hopkins is working with a company called Emocha to monitor employee health. In the past, Emocha’s technology has focused on monitoring patient symptoms and making sure they take their medication. But two years ago, the company realized that more hospitals needed infrastructure for reviewing their own workers’ health. Nurses and doctors can input their symptoms into an app, which is then reviewed by a manager at the hospital. The app allows the hospital to manage who should go home and rest and who can continue seeing patients. Workers can continue updating their condition in the app and managers can then connect workers with additional care if needed. Everyone is accounted for in real time.
