Innovations to optimise the Western Cape Government’s COVID Response Plan & strengthen the health systems response

At the onset of the pandemic, Emergency Centres were faced with the sudden need to do large scale testing of patients and many administrative tasks. The primary aim was to reduce needless admin, in favour of clinical work at the patients’ bedside.  The Klipfontein/Mitchells Plain Sub-Structure Team implemented a combination of innovations to resolve systematic gaps between various parts of the health system. Microsoft Power Automate was programmed with instructions to create automatic COVID-19 responses, actively facilitating data flow, resulting in:

• Communication of COVID-19 results to individuals; 
• Service links to palliative care services, COVID-19 contact tracing services, referral to Quarantine and Isolation facilities and death notifications; 
• Service links with Social Services and Community Based Services; 
• Service links with Occupational Health and Safety Officer; 
• Service link with Disaster Management Services; and 
• PowerBI Dashboard for monitoring and reporting of COVID-19 infections amongst healthcare workers.

The intervention was initially implemented at Mitchells Plain Hospital and rolled out to the Heideveld Emergency Centre, and Heideveld Community Health Centre, before being scaled up to 7 other Sub-Districts in Cape Town.