International Rescue Committee [to 6 December 2014]

05 Dec 2014
International Rescue Committee Expands Fight against Ebola; Pioneers Ebola Care with Robust Electronic Medical Records
:: Increasingly commonplace in the West, the IRC is rolling out first-of-its-kind Electronic Medical Records (EMR) in treatment of Ebola
:: To date, most health care workers have used make-shift approaches to keep Ebola patients’ records: scanning files, calling results across a room, relying on individuals’ memories
:: Organization plans to pilot technology when Monrovia Ebola Treatment Unit opens later this month

New York, Dec. 5, 2014 — The International Rescue Committee (IRC) today announced that it is testing and plans to deploy electronic medical records in the fight against Ebola.
IRC teams in West Africa currently are preparing and testing the technology, which is aimed at improving Ebola patients’ care, clinicians’ decision-making, staff safety, and learning for possible future outbreaks. EMRs also will enable the IRC to systematically document the quality of care if provides to patients.

Maintaining health records in an Ebola Treatment Unit is complex:
:: The wet zone is sanitized several times a day with high concentrated chlorine, and no materials can leave the wet zone, and
:: Health care workers dressed in personal protective equipment have reduced time with patients due to the heat, which means written records are hard to keep.
In addition, records from past outbreaks are virtually non-existent, having been incinerated to prevent infection.

Recognizing the challenges and shortcomings of the system, the IRC put information technology, data, business development and medical teams to work to build an approach that improves the quality and efficiency of care. The result is a system that has the potential to dramatically alter the Ebola response in West Africa and which can pave the way for use of electronic health systems in sub-Saharan Africa generally…