From The Star Press
Two of the city’s major healthcare providers, IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital and Meridian Health Services, have undergone drastic changes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
To protect their staff and patients, visitors have been heavily restricted and any elective or non-emergency procedures have been put on hold. All staffers wear personal protective equipment (PPE) and take extra precautions with those who are positive with the virus or presumably so.
“For us in East Central Indiana, thankfully it didn’t get as bad as it could have potentially gotten,” said Jeff Bird, president of IU Health’s East Central Region. “It still changed absolutely everything in how we acted, performed and cared for patients every day.”
But constantly evolving procedural changes aren’t the only changes. Here’s a look at the new normal for local healthcare as America re-opens:
Heavy economic impact
During the pandemic’s early stages, both Meridian and Ball Memorial Hospital urged the community to stay away from their offices unless it was an emergency or if they showed COVID-19 symptoms.
For two months, Ball Memorial has halted elective surgeries. The economic impact of that is millions in lost revenue, Bird said.
Normally, all adult surgical unit beds are full, with 10 to 20 patients waiting for someone to be discharged. In recent months, one or sometimes even two of those units were closed down.
On May 8, however, IU Health announced there have been no reductions in force or any layoffs with IU Health in the state of Indiana.
In terms of staff, no one has been laid off at Meridian. There was an extended leave policy, and some voluntarily chose to go on a furlough for a period of time due to daycare issues or self-quarantining.
Restoring services slowly
As restaurants and retail spaces begin to open back up, so do medical offices.
Currently, all of Meridian’s outpatient offices are open, with social distancing precautions in place, said Lisa Suttle, regional vice president of clinical services at Meridian Health Services.
“We’ve really opened our door and proactively calling people to say, ‘We’re open, we can provide care. Can we set you up with an appointment?’” Suttle said. “And then also talking with them about precautions we have in place, because it is concerning for people.”
As a precaution, patients will have their temperature taken at the door and be asked a series of questions. They will also be given a mask to wear if they don’t have one.
Ball Memorial is focusing on its “next” normal, or re-opening parts of the hospital in measured ways.
On May 11, the hospital started a plan, a two-week period of time during which it hoped to get up to 25% of usual volume in urgent or elective procedures.
Bird hopes to see an increase by 18 or 20% in inpatient, outpatient and office visits every two weeks. By July or August, the hospital might be back at full volume.
“Unlike some businesses that can close down a little more slowly, for us, if we get 30 to 40 new patients over a week that are suspected to have COVID, we have to take care of them immediately,” Bird said. “We’ll be very measured as we go about this.”
Telehealth emerges
As patients have been warned to stay away from hospitals during the pandemic, many have connected with their physicians over the computer or phone.
Both Bird and Milius said as things progress, that type of connection is here to stay.
“We all knew it was out there, but quite frankly, culturally, people wanted touch, feel, smell, you know, connect, with their healthcare,” Milius said. “I think people have now realized, ‘Oh, this is pretty good. This is very accessible. This is very easy.’”
In April 2019, Meridian had about 1,000 telehealth visits per its typical 40,000 patients and about 500,000 outpatient visits. During the pandemic, Meridian is providing more than 33,000 telehealth visits.
Milius said one reason why it has worked so well is because the government lifted certain restrictions during the pandemic, including doctors helping out-of-state patients and allowing them to work outside of their office.
IU Health has wanted to implement more telehealth services for the past two years. The pandemic caused that to skyrocket.
“During the pandemic, everything changed, so a very rapid ramp up of our ability to execute telehealth visits occurred very quickly,” Bird said. “What we found is, overall, many patients like telehealth visits.”
Often, younger generations thrive while using telehealth, while older generations tend to enjoy in-person visits, Bird said.
Going forward, Bird’s initial goal is to have 25% of provider visits to have the ability to be provided through telehealth.
The ‘next’ normal
As with many industries, what happens next in healthcare is still foggy as scientists around the world work on a vaccine and new treatments for COVID-19.
There’s no clear answer for how long PPE will stick around or when visitors will be allowed back in the hospital. Both Bird and Milius agree that it will be a while before the healthcare industry goes back to normal.
As people social distance less, Bird said he believes there will be small outbreaks, and expects COVID-19 to stick around for months.
“I think through at least fall and winter, I expect we’re still going to have COVID,” Bird said. “The need to have PPE, the need to have different staffing plans continues to be part of our daily team, I think there’s probably little question about that.”
What to expect
- IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital is slowly restoring elective and non-emergency procedures. By July or August, the hospital might be back at full volume.
- At each Meridian Health Services location, patients will have their temperature taken at the door and be asked a series of questions. They will also be given a mask to wear if they don’t have one.
- Telehealth will continue to be offered, and possibly become a more prominent form of healthcare, as stay-at-home orders are lifted.
