Some pandemic changes ‘really should be a way of life’
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MemorialCare health system recently shifted its attention to renewal after its initial safety-focused response to COVID-19, one of its vice presidents said at Octane’s virtual MedTech Innovation Forum.
Brian Stuckman, MBA, BSN, RN, NEA-BC, senior vice president of supply chain and ancillary services at MemorialCare, California, said he made the call to inform staff that elective procedures had been canceled per state guidance on March 16.
“It was the right thing to do to get ready for our patients,” Stuckman said. “It was the right thing to do for our communities to be ready for what was coming, to be able to care for them safely.”
Stuckman said MemorialCare, which is composed of hospitals and ambulatory centers, is operating at about 85% to 90% of the clinic’s normal patient volume.
Even before making the call to cancel elective procedures, MemorialCare preemptively formed a command center in January, Stuckman said. One of the command center’s first actions was to develop PPE procedures.
“I think we did a great job of, really, safety,” Stuckman said. “And it wasn’t safety just for patients, but it was safety for physicians and for our clinicians because if they feel safe, the public is going to feel safe.”
Part of establishing safety in the “new normal” meant continuing to monitor patients despite not being able to perform elective procedures, which made telehealth technologies designed for remote monitoring valuable.
“We never stopped looking at new tech,” Stuckman said, except for the first few weeks when MemorialCare operations were completely occupied by the pandemic. “That’s what makes health care wonderful, especially in the United States, that there is so much new technology available.”
There is an ongoing discussion in the medical community about which changes adopted in response to COVID-19 will remain.
“There are a few things that we’ve learned from the pandemic that will never go away,” Stuckman said. “They really should be a way of life.”
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Lee S, et al. Elective therapies: What steps are being taken to help patients and increase procedures? Presented at: Octane’s MedTech Innovation Forum; Oct. 27-30, 2020 (virtual meeting).
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