How to provide full medical support for nursing home residents during lockdown
France’s lockdown measures raised a serious question for residential homes that house elderly patients at risk of exposure to COVID-19. How could they fill in the gaps in existing on-site medical services to address this health crisis?
A major public healthcare IT player that works mainly with medical and social organizations in the Paris region found the solution: provide nursing homes with tablets equipped with SIM cards so residents can log onto a medical platform that offers services like telehealth consultations. With the help of an on-site contact, nursing home residents can consult all the medical professionals they need through the platform, directly from their rooms.
Everyone involved in the project worked non-stop, successfully delivering all the tablets to the nursing homes within a week.
The Orange Business project manager
A logistical, health and technical challenge
After receiving this urgent request, Orange Business – with the support of Orange Event Planning – put together an initial tablet rental proposal in just 30 hours. The initial request for 100 devices gradually expanded to a total of 610. “Everyone involved in the project worked non-stop, successfully delivering all the tablets to the nursing homes within a week,” explains the Orange Business project manager. “We formed a human chain, with every single link fully mobilized, which enabled us to successfully take on this challenge.”
The project was a challenge in terms of logistics, since the team had to find all the devices and transport them to the nursing homes. It also presented a health challenge since it required compliance with all the safety rules inside the nursing homes. Last but not least, the challenge was also technical: the tablets had to be configured to meet a very precise set of specifications: model, single OS and browser compatible with the medical platform, data security, and, of course, meticulous cleaning.
Meeting medical and social needs
Several weeks after the tablets were delivered, the nursing homes have had the time to note their benefits. Not only do they offer a relevant response to the current crisis, they may also be extremely useful over the long term. In addition to facilitating access to doctors, they enable long-term care follow-up for residents: patients can continue to be monitored by their own doctors after entering the nursing home.
Beyond the strictly medical side of the program, tablets also help maintain social ties by making it easier for residents and their families to stay in touch when it matters most.
610 tablets delivered