Memorial Health Systems have been using data and science to help patients with the COVID-19 pandemic. A custom, automated network allows officials at the five-hospital system to track positive COVID_19 cases and hospital bed capacity. This will ensure timely test results and detect hot spots in central Illinois communities.
The work that Memorial has put in on this started in mid-march when a team of scientists and data engineers joined Memorial Managers in working 60-70 hour work weeks writing thousands of lines of computer code that released real-time local, state, and national data on COVID-19 cases. That information was very useful in helping doctors take care of patients.
The organization was able to precisely compute “burn rates” for PPE. This allowed them to get critical information and kept supplies adequate during the height of the pandemic. Memorial monitored process times as well to help reroute test samples to various lab partners to get the fastest turnarounds available.
Not only has this data helped for COVID-19, but also gives better ideas of other communicable diseases such as influenza and strep throat and also help if there is another surge in the fall.
