Page 18 - Q BULLETIN, Ministry of Health Malaysia, VOLUME 1, NO. 31 (SUPPLEMENT 1), JAN-DEC 2022

Q Bulletin, Volume 1, No. 31 (Supplement 1), Jan - Dec 2022
th
11 National QA Convention, 4 – 6 October 2022
OP-04

Using Digital Technology to Improve Daily Staff Health Surveillance and Assist in
Automated Tracing of COVID-19 Positive Staff and Close Contacts

Rhema S, Suriyani A, Farina S, Norhalim K, Mohd Hasrul KA, Amirul Syafiq MS
Institut Jantung Negara (IJN), Kuala Lumpur

SELECTION OF OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT:
Institut Jantung Negara (IJN) experienced ten COVID-19 clusters and an increasing trend in staff contracting
COVID-19; 380 staff (16%) in 2021. The absence of a centralised mechanism to track staff health status led to
intervention delays; detection of unwell staff, isolation of COVID-19 cases and identification of close contacts.
Unwell staff continued working, at risk of infecting others.

KEY MEASURES FOR IMPROVEMENT:
The key improvement measure was >90% compliance to daily health declaration by staff and an improved
number of contact tracings completed within 24 hours.

PROCESS OF GATHERING INFORMATION:
Staff awareness of health surveillance needs was assessed by monitoring compliance to daily health
declarations. Audits were conducted to determine the number of COVID-19 clusters, the number of staff
contracting COVID-19 and the time taken for contact tracing.

ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION:
Staff compliance to daily health self-declaration was 53% in January 2021. The number of staff contracting
COVID-19 in January 2021 was 44. This placed unanticipated demands on contact tracing, which led to 150
staff redeployed to assist with calling close contacts for risk stratification. The manual nature of contact tracing
took an average of 72 hours per COVID-19 case.

STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE:
IJNSurveillance, a spectrum of cloud-based applications allowing self-declaration of health from mobile
devices, integrating temperature checks and attendance systems, was implemented in November 2020. It also
enabled automated contact tracing, which reduced the manual processes. Data collected were accessible on a
real-time centralised dashboard.

EFFECT OF CHANGE:
Staff compliance to daily health status declaration on IJNSurveillance increased from 53% (January 2021)
to 93% (December 2021). Unwell staff were tracked and advised for medical clearance upon entering the
premises. Early notification of COVID-19 led to >90% contact tracing completed within 24 hours compared
to the average 72-hour time frame.

THE NEXT STEP:
The demands of the pandemic resulted in the extension of IJNSurveillance to submodules for different end-
users, staff, patients, accompanying persons, caregivers and visitors.

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