Immediate adaptation to exceptional crisis situations
Covid-19
Creation and implementation of an optimised and comprehensive process that responds to the new needs of the service with a special focus on the detection and care of people who are vulnerable to the collateral effects of the health crisis
Status
The health crisis caused by COVID-19 created an unprecedented scenario in our society, especially in the field of social and health care. Remote services, and telecare in particular, became a vital link to one of the groups most impacted by the pandemic because of their vulnerability. In this situation we identified the following objectives:
- Ensure the safety, health and needs of users.
- Ensure the correct service offering.
- Detect vulnerabilities and create specific, customised protocols.
Action
The exceptional circumstances surrounding the health crisis exacerbated the needs of those who were already vulnerable. In order to respond to this new situation, we set up different protocols that allowed us to adapt as quickly and efficiently as possible:
Triage
The exceptional circumstances surrounding the health crisis exacerbated the needs of those who were already vulnerable. In order to respond to this new situation, we set up different protocols that allowed us to adapt as quickly and efficiently as possible:
Bereavement care
We developed and implemented a comprehensive process in nine phases for the identification, care and monitoring of users who presented some vulnerability or specific need arising from the new context.
Safety
We guaranteed the protection of users and our staff with specific protocols in place for home care. In addition, teleworking was made available in record time for all staff who did not need to be on site.
Adapted solutions
We collaborated with different public bodies to create solutions to meet the new needs of vulnerable groups (e.g. elderly people and female victims of domestic violence).
Results and conclusions
Despite the challenge posed by the new context for the entire health and social care sector, we were able to respond to the needs that arose from the pandemic and continue to provide the service with the utmost safety and efficiency and produce clear results:
Increase in follow-up calls, reaching an average of 10,300 calls per day.
Increase in the number of alerts issued by users, with a particularly significant increase (39.4%) in calls from users who only wanted to engage in conversation, but also a notable increase in calls for emergencies (up 15.6% on previous months) and health alerts (up 29.3%). The alerts made were included in protocols for referral and attention of the City Councils and Autonomous Regions that had been defined for this purpose in order to be able to act on pre-identified situations of heightened vulnerability.
Implementation of teleworking for 95% of staff on an internal server with the capacity to manage up to 3,000 simultaneous workstations and creation of specific protocols for home care.
The results obtained confirmed the high responsiveness and adaptability of our care model, which was able to apply comprehensive processes that responded to new needs and allowed us to guarantee the well-being (physical, mental and social) of users in times of exceptional emergency and complexity.