They couldn’t say goodbye in person, so ICU patients instead use tablets

“As the ICU (intensive care unit) team prepares, there is a key step we must not forget,” Shapiro, who is a hospitalist at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital in California, written on twitter. “At first he says ‘No’, but we encourage him. The nurse brings the iPad. With the last air in his shattered lungs, he says goodbye to his family. Over an Internet connection.”

Hospitals have been overwhelmed by the thousands of patients who arrive every day after contracting coronavirus. Across the United States, there has been a shortage of hospital supplies for medical staff and beds for patients.

Shapiro’s Twitter feed is littered with comments from family members who had to communicate with loved ones in hospital through a computer screen. And this is just one of the many social media posts that have shared this new practice.

Shapiro says iPads are often used just before patients are intubated. At this point, there is no guarantee that the patient will have the opportunity to talk to loved ones again.

“We intubate when their lungs are injured to the point where they just can’t maintain organ function,” Shapiro told CNN. “They aren’t getting enough oxygen on their own. And we understand that we can make their last conversation easier.”

Shapiro says posts like his are a rare glimpse for non-medical staff of the severity of the virus.

“When it comes to the messages about wearing masks, physical distancing, and hand washing, there comes a point where you play the same key on a piano,” Shapiro told CNN. “These types of first-person stories are just a different way of delivering this similar message.”

“ The best way to connect people … during the pandemic ”

Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital is not the first to use these tablets during the pandemic. The Houston Methodist Hospital also used them until they switched to a different technology.

Farzan Sasangohar, who is the division chief of health systems engineering at Houston Methodist Hospital, said he used similar tablets before adopting the virtual intensive care unit (vICU) for his patients.

A vICU connects the technology to a camera installed inside each room. Patients do not need to touch a screen or keyboard and can communicate through a large screen. The original intention of the technology was to allow doctors, who were in short supply, to visit patients remotely. But once the pandemic began, technology was used to allow families to virtually visit loved ones in hospital.

“(The visit) was an unnecessary risk,” Sasangohar, who is also an assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering at Texas A&M University, told CNN. “Our hospital still doesn’t have visits, but it’s the best way to connect people more effectively during the pandemic.”

“I have received moving comments from patients who have seen family members pass away,” Sasangohar said. “But they were also happy to be there, to get this shutdown. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to see it.”

“Most of the clinical settings don’t benefit from the built-in hardware and therefore have to rely on iPads or other similar devices,” Dhala told CNN in an email. “As most facilities adopt these technologies, dedicated iPads will be required for each patient due to the infectious nature of COVID-19 and patient privacy concerns.”

And while the vICU may be more affordable and easier to set up than iPads, Dhala said neither option compares to seeing a patient in person.

“The main downside, of course, was that virtual meetings are still far from a perfect substitute for family presence and direct physical contact with loved ones,” Dhala said. “Socio-economic inequalities and the corresponding unequal access to technology meant that not all patient families would be able to use this great feature.”

‘It’s sad that we had to come to this‘

For Carolyn Booker, head nurse at Northside Hospital in Atlanta, Ga., IPads are the hospital’s best option. Like other hospitals, Booker says Northside had pills, but the sudden surge in coronavirus cases has led to demand for more.

“As far as Covid goes, hospitals have basically banned visitors,” Booker told CNN. “If a patient is positive with Covid, we don’t want to run the risk of someone else contracting it, so this is the best way for patients to continue to be with their loved ones.

“It’s sad we had to come to this,” Booker said. “Just from the point of view of our situation, part of this is what we’ve created for ourselves by not following science, not social distancing, not wearing masks. Because these things are still happening, we also always put our loved ones at risk. ”

Yet Booker sees the use of these tablets as an innovative solution to a common problem. And she, like others, says iPads will continue to be used years after the virus is gone. She recalls a patient who used an iPad for over six hours with a family member. The two sat in silence for most of this time. The patient later told Booker that it was enough to see each other’s faces.