Since COVID-19 reached Montenegro in March 2020, case numbers and deaths have been fluctuating and the virus continues to pose a major threat to the people of this Southern European country. As a small coastal state, Montenegro has an open economy that relies on tourism and service industries for generating income. With this comes a high fluctuation of people, which often leads to high transmission rates. And the summer brought general parliamentary elections that, together with softer epidemiological measures at that time, put COVID-19 cases on the steady rise, to reach a peak in November 2020.

A delicate balancing act

As more people get hospitalized, more beds, ventilators and health workers are needed to care for them. This pulls resources away from other essential health services and endangers their continuity. So, the challenge becomes to care for the raising number of infected people, while maintaining other life-saving services with the given resources. The Ministry of Health of Montenegro faced this challenge daily.

Committed to leaving no one behind, the country initiated a development of an IT tool for integrated clinical case management, that will give real time information about capacitates in health facilities. Once this is known, the Ministry of Health will be able to plan and prioritize resources where they are most needed.

Data in the service of people

In all countries, the ability to bring health information together to offer immediate real-time analysis and visualization of the overall situation. Traditionally, much of this information is held in different places, but to be able to take evidence-based decisions immediately, such data needs to be brought together during emergencies. Towards the end of the 2020, the integrated clinical case management went live. And with it, daily updates on available and absent health workers, patients, medical equipment and bed capacities.

WHO assisted in many stages of this process. First, the Organization mobilized resources and expertise for software development. By understanding the needs on all levels of health care, the IT tool was tailored to include a data base, an analytical function and options for data visualization. Second, with WHO support, the new tool was integrated into the national health information system, but also made available to health care facilities outside of this network. This proved to be an important step in ensuring inclusive and reliable information sharing. Finally, WHO supported capacity building for use of the software by adding and extracting real time data to inform their work.

Here to stay

With the integrated clinical case management, Montenegro and WHO employed digital technologies to the benefit of the many. Instead of lagging behind the virus, health workers are now a step ahead of it: quick information-flow allows timely planning of capacities and fast reaction to bottlenecks. This makes the Montenegrin health system more resilient and capable of protecting the people and those who care for them.

Epidemics come and go, while this IT tool is here to stay and to lay a foundation for a broad emergency operation centre that Montenegro aspires to.

Photo caption: A snapshot of the an IT tool for integrated clinical case management, that will give real time information about capacitates in health facilities.

Photo credit: WHO