2628 Wilhite Court, Suite 201
Lexington, KY 40503
PH: (859) 278-0569 FAX: (859) 277-3919
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COVID-19 impact articles from Baptist Health Lexington, CHI Saint Joseph, UK Healthcare, and local physicians using Telehealth.
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Our Adjustment to the New Normal
Mamata Majmundar, MD
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The impact of the COVID came at us in shocks. The first shock was the beginning of the stock market crash that began as a tremor on Feb. 20 and then a deep dive on Feb. 24
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and beyond. On March 6
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the first confirmed case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Kentucky and Governor Beshear declared a state of emergency. A week later the NBA cancelled their season, the SEC tournament was cancelled, and the U.S. declared a national state of emergency. Within the next ten days everything but life sustaining activities shut down. The new normal was here. Our May newsletter focuses on how our healthcare systems have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and how our physicians our leveraging telehealth. Additionally, we are excited to report an expansion of the Lexington Medical Society Physician Wellness Program (LMS PWP) for UK medical students and offer an online video workshop resource called “The Pandemic Survival Guide for Physicians” by Dike Drummond, MD.
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Click the link below to view Dr. Dougherty's video
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Baptist's Response to COVID-19
James Borders, MD, CMO Baptist Health Lexington
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Baptist’s response to the pandemic was early, aggressive, and coordinated. Leadership meetings included quality personnel, personnel in infection control, nursing administration, and physicians in infectious disease and our hospitalist group along with administration. We took inventory of space, ICU resources, ventilator supply, and supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE). We designated hospital units where COVID-19 infected patients would be placed and developed protocols of patient screening to identify patients suspect for COVID-19. Nursing and allied medical personnel reviewed proper isolation techniques and use of PPE, aided by our nurse educators.
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CHI Saint Joseph's Response to COVID-19
Dan Goulson, MD, CMO, CHI Saint Joseph Health
Travis Sewalls, MD, CMO, Saint Joseph Hosp, Saint Joseph East, Saint Joseph Jessamine
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As the number of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases grew across Kentucky, our team of physicians, nurses, therapists, Infection Prevention and Control teams, and other staff throughout our hospitals shifted into a higher gear to ensure we could continue to provide the highest level of care for our patients.
We have dealt with infectious diseases before, and similar to those instances involving Ebola, SARS and MERS in the past, our facilities are working with our public health departments at the state and local levels, as well as with local governments. As part of CommonSpirit Health, we had the added benefit of belonging to a national health care system. CommonSpirit Health convened an enterprise-level task force dedicated to COVID-19 preparedness that is working to ensure our caregivers are educated and safe and have access to the equipment they need to care for our patients. Physicians from CHI Saint Joseph Health actively participate in advising CommonSpirit on COVID-19 issues.
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UK Healthcare Team Steps Up to Meet Challenges of Patient Care During COVID-19
Kristi Willett, Director, Medical Campus Public Relations
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As early as mid-January, UK HealthCare began taking precautions such as screening patients who had traveled to China during the holiday break and then returned to the University of Kentucky campus. Since then, UK’s Infection Prevention and Control team and the UK HealthCare leadership team has worked with campus colleagues, city and state officials -- and throughout the health care enterprise -- to continually update procedures and protocols to keep patients, employees and students safe.
“All across UK HealthCare, I have been so proud of how our faculty and staff have stepped up to this unprecedented public health event,” said Dr. Mark F. Newman, UK executive vice president for health affairs. “In every area, from our front-line nurses, physicians and respiratory therapists, to our supply management team and those who help clean the hospital to help make it safe for employees and patients, we’ve seen people go above and beyond to take care of patients and take care of each other.”
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Telehealth: Essential & Efficient in our COVID-19 World
Allison Cook, MD, Lexington Women's Health
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The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us a lot about our practice. One of the biggest changes that we have made is the expansion of our telehealth program. We already dabbled in tele medicine but had only offered it to existing weight loss patients. After the COVID-19 virus we realized that telehealth was an essential and efficient way to continue patient care without having them come in the office and could be utilized so much more in our practice. Though we might have been a bit resistant in prior years, this service made it possible for us to do many prenatal and gynecology visits that we hadn’t really considered offering through telehealth before. We knew we had to limit patient exposure for the safety of our patients, our staff and ourselves so this was the best way.
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Pandemic Forces Internal Changes/Fruitful Discoveries
Danesh Mazloomdoost, MD, Wellward Regenerative Medicine
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Sometimes
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a radical change forces internal changes and fruitful discoveries. My team has been scrambling to maintain continuity of care with our patients ever since the Covid-19 closure of electives outpatient services. I commend my team in rallying to organize the infrastructure necessary for remote management of our entire patient population.
In a very short timeframe, my team evaluated and identified a platform to conduct telemedicine visits. They collaborated in developing new workflows that used staff in creative ways to streamline the clinical encounter. We overcame the knowledge and technological barriers many of our patients face by using medical assistance to coach the patients into the virtual visits and created a handoff system by which staff can message each other as patients transition through different components of the visit.
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Telemedicine in Otolaryngology
Gregory Osetinsky, MD, FACS, Kentucky Ear, Nose & Throat, Lexington Clinic
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Telemedicine has flourished recently out of necessity with the COVID-19 pandemic. To lower the risk of dissemination of the SARS- CoV2 virus medical visits have been restricted to urgent and emergent problems.
Distant medicine’s origin reaches back to 1879 in a Lancet article addressing use of the telephone to reduce unnecessary office visits. Telemedicine’s origins (with the addition of video) date back to the 1950s in the practice of Psychiatry.Teleradiography soon followed.
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My Experience with Telemedicine
Charles Papp, MD, Colorectal Surgical & Gastroenterology Associates
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During the past several years my interest in telemedicine had been minimal. I’m a colorectal surgeon and any discussion about telemedicine usually ended up with humorous dismissal. Now with the Covid-19 pandemic and the easing of telemedicine regulations, I am no longer laughing. One day a week is now dedicated to telemedicine visits. In my practice I have found there are patient encounters that are well-suited for this format. Examples include simple post-operative visits, encounters for bowel changes or bleeding that may need to be scheduled for colonoscopy, and follow-up for irritable bowel syndrome or chronic constipation. I believe most specialties will also be able to identify suitable patients.
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Click the link above to view Dr. Drummond's article
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All LMS events through the end of May have been postponed. The May dinner meeting has been rescheduled for Tuesday, September 8th at the Hilary J Boone Center.
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Your LMS Staff is now working remotely from their homes. For membership or call center questions, you can still reach us at (859) 278-0569. For credentialing questions, call (859) 277-1762. Thank you & stay safe!
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