Ottawa County co-develops contact tracing app

Ottawa County co-develops contact tracing app
<strong>Photo by iStock</strong>

The Ottawa County Department of Public Health developed a patient and contact tracking application to stay ahead of COVID-19.

Utilizing the workflow program Onbase, provided by ImageSoft Inc. in Southfield, the health department built the patient and contact tracking application in just over a week. The app integrated a survey for patients, geographic monitoring and Michigan’s Disease Surveillance System.

Ottawa County immediately began surveying new patients, tracing contacts and high-risk populations, and building an interconnected public health community of nurses, epidemiologists, environmental health professionals and more to help flatten the curve.

The health department reported the following successes as a result of using Onbase:

  • 91% of more than 20,000 surveys saved 2,800 patient care hours
  • Nurses prioritize cases and immediately identify urgent patients
  • Real-time dashboards increase visibility and patient monitoring
  • Seamless integrations with ESRI produce stronger tracking analytics
  • Remote access and collaboration for OCDPH’s team
  • Remotely connect isolated patients with medical resources
  • Public-facing, real-time reporting dashboard
  • Scalable system seamlessly adjusts to evolving needs
  • Sustainable, wide-applicable digitalized operations

The tracker is now publicly available and being used by other counties. ImageSoft also developed a cloud-based version that can be used by anyone, even people who are not Onbase subscribers.