Most PPE in Better Supply, For Now
From what we’re hearing from clinics
around the state, PPE is in much better supply
after initially being scarce (to put it mildly.)*
“PPE has been a bit of a roller coaster from
week to week depending on the need,” said
Jeff Hunnicutt, CEO of Highland Oncology,
also in northwest Arkansas. He responded on
behalf of the 20 physicians who specialize in
hematology, medical oncology, palliative care,
radiation oncology,
and surgical oncology.
“We have finally
settled in on masks
being a reliable item
to obtain, but gowns
have become scarce.
I am sure that we will
be dealing with this
Jeff Hunnicutt for a while.”
As far as mask wearing by patients, Dr. Cahill
reported that things are going well in the
Pine Bluff area where she practices. Patient
education is an important part of that. “I think
people are pretty good at wearing their masks,”
she said. “Sometimes you hear in public, people
are like ‘This mask is driving me crazy.’ Well, physicians
have been wearing them 24/7, so we’re
okay with it. It’s a little bit tough sometimes to
get patients to understand why it’s important
and not to wear them under their noses. But
at 50 patient encounters a day – and then with
contact tracing – if one of us were to become
infected, and then we had to list every person
we came in contact with who didn’t have a mask
on? That’s exponential.
“Staff exposure is lower thanks to PPE. For
instance, our patient zero was in the hospital for
six days before we knew he had COVID-19. Now
that we have ways to protect ourselves, it’s better.
If we weren’t able to get PPE, things could
go bad quickly. We can’t open the world back up
again, not now. Not sitting around with 500 people
without a mask on.”
Settling into a New Normal
As much as physicians and patients might
like to get back to “normal,” the reality is that
normal will continue to evolve. “Business as
usual has changed to include masks, more frequent
hand washing, fewer visitors allowed, and
regular screening of patients,” said Dr. Cahill.
“Patients have also adapted quickly to waiting
in their cars, calling ahead if they’re ill, and similar
safeguards.”
Some changes may ultimately be for the
best, according to patient feedback. “It’s hard
to imagine silver linings being found among the
clouds of COVID-19,” commented Hunnicutt, “but
we have found several benefits that we would
like to keep in place at Highlands going forward,
one of which added an element that we were surprised
by. Our drive-thru lab draw and injection
program was originally intended to relieve the
volume in waiting rooms and offer an open-air
place for patient interaction with staff, but our
patients have raved about the convenience of
just driving up, getting what they need, and being
on their way.”
In other instances,
getting back to
traditional care patterns
has been refreshing
for patients
and providers. Alisa
Petet, clinic administrator
for GastroArkansas
of Little Rock,
ALISA PETET contrasted where the
clinic was at the onset of COVID-19 with where it
is now. “When we became aware that COVID-19
was a threat to our patients, we took fairly drastic
steps immediately to remain open but in a safe
way,” Petet explained. “In GI, we have a lot of patients
that we’re treating for chronic conditions
like inflammatory bowel disease and hepatitis.
These patients will still get sick, so we needed
to make sure that we could continue to care for
photo Courtesy of GastroArkansas.
them. Not knowing the full impact of COVID-19 to
our health systems, we also wanted to make sure
we weren’t forcing patients to seek emergency
care in ERs or urgent care where there may be a
higher population of COVID-related cases. To do
all of this, we consolidated from four into one location
so that, should cases arise in one location,
we could terminally clean it while working out of
another. Unfortunately, we had to furlough staff
during that time because we didn’t have room for
them all.
“Thankfully, we’re now back up to 95% of
our staff, and we are serving patients once again
from all of our surgery centers. That said, we’re
continuing our diligence with screening and precautions.
Patient safety is still first and foremost,
and everyone’s guard still has to be up just as if
we’re in phase one.”
Telemedicine – Big Star of the New Norm
As we mentioned in July, AMS went to great
lengths to keep past telemedicine safeguards
in place when the pandemic began, even as restrictions
were relaxed on requirements for es-
photo Courtesy of GastroArkansas.
Volume 117 • Number 3 SEPTEMBER 2020 • 55