How US Hotspot Providers Are Preparing for the COVID-19 Case Explosion

Providing personal protective equipment, bed capacity, and data monitoring is one of the steps taken by US hospitals and healthcare systems in preparation for the potential second wave of coronaviruses.

Healthcare leaders said they learned lessons from the initial pandemic response and adjusted their operational processes accordingly.

Here, seven hospitals and healthcare system leaders, including in the provinces where the number of COVID-19 cases are rising, are discussing how they are preparing for a potential second wave.

Note: The answer was lightly edited.

Erol Akdamar, President of Medical City Healthcare (Dallas): Medical City Healthcare Hospital has an established protocol for treating patients with infectious diseases, including COVID-19. As part of HCA Healthcare, we have resources to provide support and solutions to patients, colleagues, and communities. Our preparedness efforts and contingency plans are in progress and never stop. As a result, we provide bed capacity, staffing, personal protective equipment, and equipment to meet local medical needs. We work closely with local and state departments of health and the CDC to closely monitor all aspects of this evolving situation.

As our city continues to reopen, we remain vigilant in our communities and encourage social distances, hand washing, and mask wear. These proven methods help delay the spread of COVID-19.

Rob Deininger, President and CEO of AdventHealth Fish Memorial, and COVID-19 System Command Center Leader at AdventHealth (Altamonte Springs, FL): AdventHealth owns and operates hospitals in nine states. With our head office and nearly 30 hospitals in Florida, we have more cases of COVID-19 than ever before.

We carefully monitor several key areas of the overall health system, including PPE supply levels, number of beds, employee health statistics, community prevalence analysis, and community guidance from public health authorities. I will. Our command center has been active since March and has focused planning, relocation of team members to the most needed areas, COVID-19 patient care experience, remote patient monitoring and alternative medicine sites. By implementing a new process, making as many inpatient beds as possible available, in addition to the surge in COVID-19 cases, we are ready to care for all other patients in need.

COVID-19 is part of our immediate business and will be managed like any other health services line and will continue to innovate new processes such as touchless registration to enhance care. Wearing face coverings and keeping a safe distance from others encourages communities to remain vigilant, follow CDC guidelines and help reduce the risk of infection.

Saad Ehtisham, President and COO of Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center and Greater Charlotte (NC) Market: Since the onset of COVID-19 in Charlotte and the surrounding counties, Novant Health’s response has the dual purpose of caring for patients with COVID-19 while maintaining safe care for those in need. I have been guided. Incorporated in our plan is the ability to balance surge preparedness and COVID-19 recovery. Workflow efficiency is a priority and we are incorporating the COVID-19 order set into the EMR to provide the tools that clinical care teams need to respond faster. We are well positioned to handle the COVID-19 spikes we currently see in the communities we serve, without having to call back for unnecessary surgery and other services. Our success is partly due to our ability to share resources, personnel and equipment across Novant Health’s footprint. We remain immobile in order to feel emotionally supported by our team members and to ensure we have the resources needed to care for our community.

Mickey Foster, CEO of FirstHealth of the Carolinas (Pinehurst, NC): There are many ways to manage the first wave of COVID-19 in your service area. FirstHealth of the Carolinas is Central Carolina’s leader in coronavirus testing and treatment and will continue to do so for as long as the pandemic lasts.

Internally, we are actively working on sourcing the personal protective equipment needed to help community heroes care for their communities and putting systems in place to accommodate the growing number of cases. I will. The leadership team monitors employee morale and looks for signs of COVID fatigue. We know that this pandemic will last until a vaccine is available, so it is essential that we care about our employees as they care for our patients. Full transparency is the culture you want to build at First Health. With 5,400 employees, they need to know what we are facing and how we can collaborate and care for our co-workers who we feel definitely burnt out. We encourage qualified employees to work remotely so that the “new normal” does not impact their ability to serve the community.

And for the communities we serve, we continue to provide care directly and virtually in a safe manner. Most clinics allow virtual and telephone visits to patients, and institutional safety procedures ensure public safety when face-to-face care is needed. Masking and temperature screening are obligatory at our facilities, and hospitals and clinics continue to have access restrictions. We want patients to know that the care they need during a pandemic should not be postponed.

This pandemic was a lesson of agility. As a health system, we had to make quick decisions in our first response to COVID-19. New procedures were implemented early in the response, and non-time-dependent surgery and procedures were temporarily interrupted, in order to ensure the resources needed to accommodate the potential surge in patients. I have resumed non-time sensitive surgery and procedures, but I am not outside the forest yet. We continue to monitor trends and data in collaboration with state consortia, local agencies and partners, and First Health infectious disease specialists. Please modify the course as needed to continue to support COVID-19.

Steven Mett, MD, CEO of University of Arkansas School of Medicine Medical Center and Senior Vice President of UAMS Health (Little Rock): Compared to many other areas, here in Arkansas the amount of COVID-19 is small. However, over the past three to four weeks, there has been a rapid increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations throughout the state. If our modeling is correct, we unfortunately predict a hospital capacity in Arkansas.

We are preparing using what we have learned from the experience of ourselves and others over the past four months. There were four months to improve the operational process. Mobilized at the beginning of March to create capacity, create robust surge plans, create care processes, and see how they successfully managed complex, resource-intensive patients. I was able to confirm. Not over 26 [COVID-19] Patients at once, so we were able to hone our skills and operational algorithms.

As the number of COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization is expected to increase, a method of tapering care for non-COVID patients by building capacity by reducing time-independent hospitalization procedures and clinic visits I know ICU surge capacity has been tripled. In anticipation of even larger surges, a total of 135 negative pressure chambers have been added.

We have changed supply chain management more than necessary. UAMS is currently responsible for procuring PPE and other equipment in Arkansas. This gives them far greater purchasing power and capacity to benefit all Arkansas hospitals. In addition, six major hospitals here in Little Rock have been working together since March to build a collective and synchronized approach to managing patients in the city and central Arkansas. Together, we are working on an additional 750-bed surge capacity. This kind of collaborative approach should provide resources and preparedness to our region as the pandemic continues.

Lawrence Nycome, MD, Senior Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer of Novant Health’s Winston Salem (NC) Market: When the coronavirus first struck the community in mid-March, we carefully decided to limit some services. During this time, we were able to significantly expand our capacity by about 60% and strengthen our supply chain even when there was an order at home. For about two months (beginning of May), we adjusted the COVID-19 response while resuming the postponed service, and continue to fine-tune the function to switch between COVID-19 cases and Tier 4 recovery patients. Due to the cohorting plan and the preparatory plan for that period, we will not display scenarios during the second wave or surge. Again, most will need to suspend unnecessary surgery or appointments. We will continue to work on the resilience of our team members and prepare for the relocation of our care team in case we need additional workflow and support.

Jim Seat, Vice President of Outreach Services at Intermountain Healthcare (Salt Lake City): Intermountain Healthcare has created a surge plan to treat additional COVID patients in case the number of cases increases in the community. The plan involves converting a medical/surgical bed to an ICU in a large higher hospital, cross-training and relocating staff in the medical and surgical units to treat higher vision patients. I will. We also established a COVID callline, a symptom checking chatbot, and expanded our Connect Care virtual visit platform to triage patients and answer COVID-related questions. We use an extensive telemedicine network to treat system-wide patients who cannot reach clinics or hospitals.

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