‘We still have a long way to go’

AS COVID-19 CASES SURGE across the country, hospitals and clinicians in emerging hot spots are facing challenges similar to what their peers in New York, Washington and other initial surge locations dealt with early in the pandemic.

Shortages of personal protective equipment and inadequate access to diagnostic testing persist, but providers in the new hot spots are also dealing with a wornout workforce and balancing COVID cases with the need to bring back nonemergent procedures.

“I think the biggest challenge people are experiencing is fatigue. And it’s not physical fatigue, it’s quarantine fatigue, mask fatigue, fatigue around washing your hands,” said Dr. Tony Slonim, CEO of Reno, Nev.-based Renown Health.

“I mean, it sounds ridiculous, but people are tired of being asked to do things they don’t want to do and they’re not acting rationally. You see this on the internet.”

At the same time, the new hot spots have had the benefit of experience and learning from peers and the time to reexamine how they treat COVID patients, keep staff safe and conserve resources.

“We are much more conservative about putting patients on ventilators” now compared with the beginning of the pandemic, said Dr. Marcus Schabacker, CEO of ECRI, a not-for-profit organization that works to improve patient safety and healthcare quality. “We are finding other ways to supplement oxygen.”

Modern Healthcare talked with leaders in a number of emerging hot spots. Here are their stories.