Message from our EVP: COVID-19 Update

“We are in unchartered water” goes the line from a movie I saw many years ago about searching for sunken treasure.  These days that seems eerily true.  I cannot begin to imagine the impact this is having on each of the facilities we serve across the globe and the subsequent obstacles the clinicians are facing on a day to day basis.  My wife is an Occupational Therapist and some days her concern for her patients is only outweighed by the concern she has for what she may bring home, in spite of the many precautions she is taking.

At Picis, our focus continues to be on taking care of our customers and our employees, as best we can.  Back in early March we instituted a work from home edict for all staff, both for our Wakefield office and our office in Barcelona.  Our team has steadily adjusted to a different cadence and we are using Teams, Skype and Webex to make sure we can look each other in the eye, virtually at least, and understand everyone’s perspective.  Oddly, I think in the process, we’ve become better listeners.  I do know that of the many conversations we have each day, it is clear that our teammates are concerned about each other on a different level.  We’ve also eliminated any travel for any employee for the balance of March through the end of June, across all businesses within the Harris portfolio.  More time off the road has also helped our staff stay connected to those that matter most.

In spite of the virtual approach, I believe we are still being as responsive to our customer’s needs as ever.  In fact, we have initiated the ability for our Critical Care customers to expand their ICU without any additional license fees; we’ve also allowed customers access to our eView product (a dashboard for ICU) on a temporary basis.  For customers mobilizing clinicians to COVID-19 triage, we have offered to pick up any of the administrative tasks they normally perform on Picis products.  These are simple things we can do to help make sure every customer is as prepared as possible for any influx in patients desperate for critical care.

As our customers pivot to focus on COVID-19 preparations and solutions, many of our existing projects have become a lower priority.  Like many industries, we are feeling a financial impact of this pandemic.  We are using this as an opportunity to cross-train staff as well as gather 25 years of best practices into creating a “standard configuration”.  Ultimately, our goal will be to come through this rough stretch with a product that represents all of the learnings we have had from implementing over 400 customers worldwide.  Our team’s experiences are valuable and creating a “standard configuration” based on that vast amount of experience will help make future projects accelerate from service order to go-live.  Regardless of the challenges we face, nothing will inhibit us from being able to provide the best possible products and services.  We continue to have the same support organization we had prior to the outbreak of COVID-19 and the same escalation process.  We are here for our customers – even if “here” is now a remote office instead of a nest of cubicles and offices in one building.

As of today, we are also exploring new ways to serve.  With the need for “field expedient” ICU facilities, we are combining several products to make standing those makeshift ICU’s up without losing the power of electronic solutions.  Our goal is to have a comprehensive solution specific to track the status of every patient in critical care, use algorithms to set thresholds and alerts for changing status and subsequent protocol changes, document all of this easily, and use predictive analytics to anticipate shifting needs – all with minimal interaction at the bedside.  Communities are looking to set up “field expedient” ICU’s in local school gymnasiums and town halls – we want to provide a solution ready to meet that need that can be deployed quickly and effectively, allowing the focus to be on the best care with the least danger to caregivers.

While these are unchartered waters, I genuinely believe that we have a course to follow that will help our customers get through this storm and be even more fortified for any turbulence to come.  I hope you and your families are healthy and safe!  I also hope that you are finding the good that can come in the future based on the challenges we face today.  That’s optimism and it’s foundational to how we have always faced adversity; a belief not that “everything is okay” but that “everything will be okay” in spite of how difficult it is right now. You have our unyielding gratitude for all that you do to care for others.  We stand ready to serve you in any capacity possible.  And we will be here to do so for years to come!

-Marcus Perez, Executive Vice President, Picis