For an industry that is historically slow to adapt, COVID-19 certainly spurred healthcare into action. Hospitals across the globe quickly shifted protocols to manage surges, adopted technology to stay connected with patients from afar, and reprioritized the safety of our frontline clinicians.
And while it’s human nature to yearn for a return to “normalcy” during a time that disrupted nearly every facet of our lives, COVID-19 has the potential to be the push healthcare has needed to advance the delivery of patient care.
The risk of turning back is far too great – we owe it to our brave healthcare workers to hardwire today’s infection control processes. If we let it, this pandemic will serve as a moment in redefining our standards: how we connect with patients, how we protect clinicians, and what tools and techniques we use. By using this pandemic as a learning opportunity, we’ll see patient care change in the following ways:
Adjusted Patient Flow and Clinical Workflows
When patients present at the hospital for urgent care, we will see a shift in how patients are managed and triaged according to their infection risk. For example, there will be wards and holding rooms for infectious respiratory disease, such as COVID-19, pneumonia, influenza, TB, and so on. These rooms will have dedicated RTs and clinicians who have the expertise and equipment needed to safely care for these patients. Other patients will be filtered and separated for safe care elsewhere, improving resource utilization and reducing transmission risk.
A Virtual-First Approach to Care
Telehealth, the provision of healthcare remotely by means of telecommunications, is not new, but it certainly stepped into the spotlight during this pandemic, helping healthcare organizations keep non-urgent patient volumes down and avoid in-person interactions when possible. Out of need, communities across the globe quickly adopted telehealth as a go-to model of care delivery; clinician acceptance grew exponentially; policymakers improved incentives for its use; and home became, among other things, how we connect with our primary care provider. In fact, U.S. healthcare systems alone saw a 50 to 175-fold increase in telehealth volume compared to pre-pandemic levels.1 Beyond reducing infection risk and person-to-person transmission, we’ve also seen the benefits that such convenient ways of connecting with clinicians have on patient outcomes. Engaging patients on their own health from the comfort of their homes and activating consistent line-of-sight into their wellbeing only helps to drive timely interventions and proactive care. While we should continue to encourage urgent cases to seek care in person, it’s safe to say telehealth is not going anywhere and has established itself as a staple in frontline care.
Retiring Antiquated Forms of Treatment
This pandemic has made it clear that some of the tools and techniques we’ve relied on for years no longer best serve our patients or our clinicians. During COVID-19, the selection of drug delivery devices and their infection risk carries more weight than ever before, and our treatment techniques are held to a higher standard. This takes some trial and error, however. For example, at the beginning of the pandemic, global infection control guidelines lacked clarity on the transmission risk of aerosol drug delivery, failing to differentiate between safe, medical aerosols and dangerous, infectious bioaerosols1. This initially caused many hospitals to act conservatively and dissuade against the use of aerosolized medications. But we’ve increasingly seen the tides change – many are turning to advanced aerosol drug delivery solutions as guidelines are now differentiating nebulizers from aerosol-generating procedures 3,4. Looking ahead, we will prioritize these tools along with PPE. that protect healthcare workers from infection and give our patients the best chance at recovery. That means we may see the retirement of many antiquated forms of aerosol therapy, such as standard air-driven jet nebulizers that not only have low delivery efficiency but also are prone to contamination and potential subsequent dispersion of infectious emissions into the air.2
Transforming Healthcare for the Better
Clinicians are brave by nature, always diving into their work headfirst and often putting their own safety second after their patient’s. Never has this rang truer than during this pandemic. It is time we equip them with effective, reliable tools and techniques, and create a new standard of proactive care that prioritizes safety above all. COVID-19 has rocked healthcare systems across the globe. But, it’s also full of lessons that can transform the industry for the better – if only we let it.
