Corona in Frankfurt: This is how the health department works
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fromSteven Micksch
shut down
Increasing numbers of corona and the still unresolved software error make the work in the Frankfurt Health Department a burden.
Frankfurt – It is a polyphonic babble in the four offices of the Frankfurt Health Department in Töngesgasse. The ten young people are equipped with headsets, talk, listen and take notes. After hanging up there is silence for 30 seconds, at least at the respective place. When this time is up, the phone rings again and the help on the Corona hotline starts all over again. Sylke Dobat is the head of the team and sits in another office. “We work here seven days a week, regardless of whether it’s a weekend or a holiday,” she says. They handle 800 to 900 calls every day. But the number of people calling is much higher.
An hour earlier, Dobat was sitting in the situation briefing with the representatives of the other departments of the Frankfurt Health Department. The men and women currently meet three times a week. Those who are not in the building participate via video. The problems after the update of the RKI reporting software SurvNet continue to be a key topic. The performance when entering a case has decreased significantly. Where three minutes is enough, it will now probably take ten because the system is slow. “Continue to motivate people, but please don’t put any pressure on them,” says Peter Tinnemann, head of the health department. Reports are three to four days behind schedule. 8600 cases were not reported on Friday morning.
Frankfurt: What corona numbers does the health department keep an eye on?
During the situation briefing there is a press review and a look at the current infection situation in the world, in Germany as well as in Hesse and Frankfurt. The situation in the nursing homes for the elderly is considered specifically; no major outbreaks can be observed there. It is expected that the hospitalization index will increase in the future. The capacities in the Frankfurt hospitals are available.
Then the vaccination numbers are considered. “They collapsed dramatically,” says Tinnemann. Although the capacities and the vaccine doses (Biontech 28,000, Moderna 18,000) were available, less than 1,000 people per day were vaccinated at the fair in the past few days. One can only speculate as to why such a large proportion of people do not get vaccinated. “New ideas are needed to reach people,” says the head of the health department. The office itself can only uphold the vaccination offer in order to be ready.
Sylke Dobat reports to the group that an evaluation has shown that there have recently been 10,000 daily attempts to call the hotline. A surprised “Oha!” escapes from the person sitting next to you.
Frankfurt Health Department: Medical questions hardly play a role in questions
Back in Töngesgasse. Dobat explains that a pool of around 70 students has been built up. 250,000 calls have been answered since the beginning in February 2020. “We already had the technology to be able to react to dangerous situations,” she says. At some point, the team in Frankfurt became the Hessen-wide corona hotline. Since then, questions from Gießen or Marburg have had to be answered and municipal deviations in the regulations taken into account.
Initially, the conversations often had medical content, it was about Ischgl, one of the first corona hotspots at the beginning of the pandemic. In the meantime, people are dying asking whether their status is part of the 2G Plus regulation, whether their vaccination status is still valid, or they are surprised that their order from the health department has not yet arrived.
The feelings that the callers have towards the students are very different. Many are grateful, some rather displeased. Especially at the beginning of 2021, when vaccinations started to increase in Germany, there were many complaints about why people shouldn’t be vaccinated themselves. “But there were always callers with existential fears,” remembers Dobat.
Frankfurt Health Department: IT problems made it difficult to process corona cases
But not only the hotline in the health department is busy these days. There is also a lot to do in case processing – even if you ignore the problems after the software update.
Silvia Morris is sitting in her office on Breite Gasse trying to process the numerous reports in her digital case folder. “It’s awful right now with the IT issues,” she says, looking at the monitor in front of her. The long waiting times throw the team back. “And it tugs at patience.”
Corona in Frankfurt: the health department only contacts risk groups
The contact tracing was only given up in the health department. Only people with known previous illnesses and people over 60 years of age would still be contacted by phone. Ideally, the telephone number is stored directly with the case to save time. Two attempts are made to call anyone over the age of 60. A cover letter will then be sent. However, older people are usually easy to reach.
However, Morris has noticed that many are well informed before they call and that most of their contacts have already been warned. And since omicron predominates, please it much more mild courses. “Delta was more severe.” She had cases where she had to call every day to ask about her health.
The documentation of the cases is now only possible in a slimmed-down form. Vaccination status, hospitalization or not – and a brief description of the clinical picture. The head of the health department, Tinnemann, also complains that the people have become “recorders of the pandemic”. This is unsatisfactory and causes a lot of frustration.
Corona: The head of the Frankfurt health department will focus on old people and the unvaccinated
Tinnemann hopes that the current containment strategy will become a protector strategy. He would like to focus on old people and the unvaccinated and stay on top of that. But in the current situation this is not possible. His whole team is under a lot of pressure and is constantly busy with casework.
The problems in SurvNet have an enormous impact on day-to-day work. While Morris used to manage 30 cases, today there are a maximum of ten. And the infectiologist is not only busy with reporting the corona cases, but also takes care of other notifiable diseases such as typhus, which still exist.
Frankfurt: Health department wants to “rethink reporting”
Entering the data for the Corona cases takes a long time, the system keeps hanging, relevant Morris. They often have an error message that only goes away if they log out completely. “Everyone gives everything they can,” she assures. But it’s nerve wracking. But the motivation is still there.
Peter Tinnemann just shows the problems with the software that you have to think about the most modern technology in this area. “We & the reporting system are rethinking and moving from reporting chains to a reporting network,” he says. All relevant information must always be available to all people involved. (Steven Micksch)