HEALTHY REPS
Health news and notes Amazon to roll out Alexa for use in healthcare systems, senior living communities Amazon announced two new solutions for senior living and healthcare providers to integrate Alexa into their properties. Part of Alexa Smart Properties, the solutions were designed specifically for the needs of senior living communities and healthcare facilities.
Several large health systems including Boston Children’s Hospital (Boston, MA), Cedars-Sinai (Los Angeles, CA), BayCare (Tampa, FL), and Houston Methodist (Houston, TX) will deploy the new Alexa capability to select properties, according to the news release. Hospitals can provide information customized to their facility, like notifications about schedule changes or cafeteria menus, and skill experiences like games, podcasts, and more. Hospitals and senior living communities can also build and enable HIPAA-eligible skills, like medication tracking, to connect care 60
December 2021
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providers with residents and patients in an environment designed to protect their health information. The company says that Alexa Smart Properties simplifies deploying and managing Alexa-enabled devices at scale, in order to help properties “offer customized Alexa experiences for residents and patients, and increase care team productivity and operational efficiency.”
Through the Amazon Echo device in patient rooms, administrators can offer access to tens of thousands of Alexa skills, and tailor resident experiences by customizing community information like activity schedules and meal menus. Care team members can communicate with residents using Alexa communication features, which enable them to make announcements, voice and video calls, or send direct audio messages to other Alexa-enabled devices throughout the property. The company says that no personal information is shared with Alexa to use the device, and voice
recordings are not saved. And that Amazon implements administrative, technical, and physical safeguards for protected health information received as part of HIPAA-eligible skill interactions. Alexa Smart Properties will support senior living and healthcare solutions in the U.S. starting in November.
Some workers want COVID-19 recovery accepted as evidence of immunity Some workers opposed to vaccine mandates on the job are pointing to the same reason for their objection: They already had COVID-19. The Labor Department on Sept. 9 recommended that private companies mandate vaccines for all employees or require them to submit to regular COVID-19 tests. Tens of thousands of U.S. workers across industries from healthcare to education to airlines and the military face dismissal if they fail to get vaccinated in coming months. However, some employees are asking that immunity from prior COVID-19 infection be recognized alongside vaccination as sufficient protection against the virus, the Wall Street Journal reports. Attorneys general of 24 states wrote in a letter to President Biden that more than 120 million Americans previously infected with COVID-19 had a degree of immunity that the attorneys general say should excuse those people from vaccine mandates. Research comparing immune responses in people who have recovered from COVID-19 to those who have been vaccinated has been mixed.
