Ramsey County COVID-19 Respite Digital Logbook

Wrangle LLC – a Minneapolis-based digital agency serving B2B, B2C and not-for-profit clients – is pleased to announce that it has completed architecture, development, and launch of a digital logbook for a community health center – the Ramsey County COVID-19 Respite.

Both unsheltered populations and front-line clinic workers are at a high risk of contracting COVID-19. At the Ramsey County COVID-19 Respite, staff were attempting to track client symptoms using a paper-based logbook, which not only needed to be sanitized before, during, and after rounds, but did not provide staff a proper overview of the clients they were serving, emerging trends, or who many require extra attention.

Recognizing the threat to safety and effectiveness, Wrangle developed a web application that Ramsey County is now using to track symptoms among their homeless population, specifically those sheltered at Mary Hall. Staff and managers can easily and quickly log symptoms and risk factors among their clients over days and weeks, assisting them in decision-making around isolation, quarantine, or medical needs. Further, the digital tool is accessed via a tablet or computer that can be quickly wiped down, providing the safest possible, and most effective, method for shelter staff to regularly monitor their clients/residents while allowing them to minimize their exposure.

Perspective from Dr. Laura Pattison, a physician from Minnesota Community Care who assisted in developing and implementing Ramsey County’s response to Coronavirus for the unsheltered population: “The shelter went from concept to opening doors in just days, and Wrangle was right there with us as we were developing our workflows and streamlining our safety protocols. Most importantly they listened to us attentively, with curiosity and patience. When our team struggled to express a request clearly, the Wrangle team asked thoughtful questions and communicated ideas to us clearly and quickly. It truly felt like a collaborative design and development process, happening in real time. We’d make a request (for example, to be able to clearly flag clients with more severe symptoms) and by the next day it would be ready to test. There is no question that the web application Wrangle developed for us improved our ability to monitor, track, and make clinical assessments more efficiently and safely. During a chaotic time of such stress and uncertainty, it was a relief and pleasure to work with a team as amiable and calm, yet intensely effective, as Wrangle.”

The logbook application enabled the Respite staff, including a mix of day-shift and night-shift workers, to seamlessly track and manage care information, symptoms, risks, and test results for their homeless population, while maintaining the utmost levels of sanitation and safety. At its peak, the application tracked close to 100 pending or active clients, each of whom was checked by staff twice per day.

The web application was built and launched in just nine days by a team of three. All services for the design, development, testing, launch, and refinements were done on a volunteer basis. Inspired by the front-line workers who were taking tremendous risks in the early days of the pandemic, we were thrilled to find a way to use our technology skills to provide a data-driven web application used in the fight against Coronavirus.