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Outcomes

Rapidly Transforming a Convention Center into an Emergency Shelter to Care for Thousands of Children at the Border

Rady Children's Hospital cared for over 3,200 unaccompanied minors who came to the United States from Mexico and were placed in a temporary shelter at the San Diego Convention Center. Care included performing 36,000 COVID-19 tests and administering over 10,000 vaccines.

HHS contacted Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, which has provided cross-border medical care for children for years, and the organization agreed to collaborate with others in the community to create an emergency temporary shelter. In just five days, Rady Children’s and its partners converted the San Diego Convention Center into a shelter and designed EHR workflows to support clinical care, including streamlined registration, clinical documentation, and ordering. Over the three-and-a-half months that the temporary shelter was operating, clinicians at the shelter cared for more than 3,200 children, performing 36,000 COVID-19 tests and administering over 10,000 vaccines.

How They Did It:

  • Worked with local partners to quickly convert a convention center into a medical care and temporary housing facility.
  • Used an identifier to group patients who arrived at the same time, enabling bulk ordering and reporting.
  • Designed brief, intuitive workflows that enabled staff and clinicians to quickly complete documentation for many children.

Read the full article on EpicShare.