Different experiences, common lessons from COVID-19

Recent webinar

On July 1, LeAnn, Tara, and Ethan participated in a panel discussion of insights and lessons learned from COVID-19.

Watch the webinar recording to hear their thoughts on technology, telehealth, government funding programs, and more.

The three questions

For Clinical Administrator, Physician Services LeAnn Hooker, the role of the practice goes beyond treating patients — it also involves educating the community about what’s happening with the pandemic and what the practice is doing to keep patients safe.

Her organization, Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital, serves a largely rural population in North Carolina and Virginia through its network of 23 locations that offer specialty primary care, urgent care, and express care.

Although the practice has expanded telemedicine, it has continued to see patients in person since the outbreak. To protect patients visiting the clinic, it expanded screening and required temperature checks.

“Our employees, as they come in for shift change, their temperatures are checked, and they have to answer the ‘famous three’ questions: cough, fever, shortness of breath?” LeAnn said. “They answer those questions before they’re allowed to come on campus.”

The practice has taken many other precautions, from covering up drinking fountains to stepping up cleaning routines. Patients and employees are required to wear masks, and the staff huddles every morning to account for each item of personal protective equipment (PPE) kept under “lock and key.”

LeAnn’s takeaway: “Increasing our cleaning, our clean habits, our clean rituals — I think that’s something that will certainly stay.”

Moving forward with good techniques

Evansville Surgical Associates, the largest general surgery practice in its tri-state area of Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky, took a new approach to scheduling amid the pandemic.

The practice has about 20 surgeons — general and vascular — treating patients at two level-two trauma centers and seven satellite clinics. Following the outbreak, the practice paused elective procedures but did not close its doors entirely.

“We’re a surgical practice, and the majority of our cases are elective procedures, but we do also have emergency procedures and non-elective cases,” said Tara Foncannon, Director of Clinical Operations and Strategic Initiatives.

The practice kept clinics running without elective cases and reworked schedules to minimize exposure for physicians.

“We restructured our call schedule to minimize the surgeons’ exposure in the facilities and the clinic so we didn’t have a ton of doctors going in and out of the hospitals, as well as coming into the clinics and seeing patients,” Tara said.

Patients arriving at the facility are taken into exam rooms as quickly as possible to minimize time spent in the waiting room. As at Hugh Chatham, everyone at Evansville Surgical Associates is required to wear masks, as well as take part in screenings and temperature checks. Tara expects many of these routines to continue.

“COVID-19 is here,” she said. “Keeping in mind what we experienced and making sure we move forward with good techniques and processes is a big takeaway.”

How telemedicine can take hold

While virtual visits have limited effectiveness for surgical patients whose care requires in-person interaction, they provided a lifeline for many in the early days of COVID-19.

When things were up in the air, Medical Colleagues of Texas, a 12-provider multispecialty practice, found security in the cloud.

In March, as healthcare leaders and governing bodies discussed shutting down, Practice Administrator Ethan Bing reached out to his rep at Updox, a Greenway Marketplace Partner. The conversation happened late in the week, Ethan recalled. The following Monday, the practice launched a telemedicine platform. Being on the Intergy hosted platform gave the practice a good sense of security, he said.

“We were a step ahead of many practices because we were on the hosted solution,” Ethan said. “We were able to put the emergency plan in place to remotely operate at 100% telemedicine.”

By May, the practice was seeing 25% of patients in person and 75% via telemedicine. Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, it did not offer telemedicine appointments. Eventually, Ethan expects the ratio to taper back to the inverse — 75% in person and 25% via telemedicine — and for telemedicine to remain in use.

Of the physicians on staff at Medical Colleagues of Texas — including primary care physicians, OB-GYN specialists, pulmonologists, a gastroenterologist, and others — primary care physicians made the most seamless move to virtual visits.

“Telemedicine, when optimized within the healthcare delivery model, will take hold,” Ethan said. “I believe requisite services like lab draws and physical exams must integrate seamlessly for telemedicine to become the norm.”

For Ethan, the value of telemedicine — and an enhanced understanding of what must occur for it to have a lasting effect — have been lessons of the crisis.

Greenway clients have faced historic challenges in 2020. We will continue to do all we can to support them as they care for their communities.