Good Health Hospital: COVID-19 Crisis
With any disease, there are three basic levels of addressing the crisis, that of primary care (prevention), management during the early stages, and then more intensive tertiary-level treatment when the disease has become more advanced. With COVID-19, the healthcare system has been dealing with several critical factors regarding the pandemic. As well as the disease itself, there has been an evolution of new variants such as Omicron, which has been infecting already-vaccinated people, and resistance to the idea of vaccination at all. The speed with which the pandemic is intensifying is of particular concern.
According to Salvador-Carulla (et al., 2019), hospitals must move from an evidence-based framework, with rigorous long-term testing of various epidemiological approaches. Instead, an evidence-informed framework must be adopted. Hospitals must make do with good enough information, given the rapidity with which the pandemic has spread. Good management has always been compromised of a balance of evidence-based qualitative and quantitative data, but now, qualitative and immediate observations (such as the reasons for vaccine resistance or provider burnout) may need to be given greater weight, given the demand for immediate information and quick actions (Khaliq, 2018).
To fight the pandemic, epidemiological management requires two critical factors: first, to retain and support providers, second to support vaccination.
Roles and Responsibilities
Even before the pandemic, burnout of healthcare providers was becoming highly problematic in addressing healthcare issues, given the rise of chronic illnesses and the rapidly aging population. COVID-19 exacerbated such issues,...
First, expanding the pool of providers during emergency situations is paramount, as is providing the needed physical and emotional support system to ensure providers can offer a high level of quality care to patients in need. Burnout is a specifically recognized symptom by World Health Organization (WHO), comprising chronic stress, fatigue, negative feelings, and reduced professional capacity (Sharifi et al., 2020). Of course, physical shortage of equipment such as PPE, ventilators, and other needed equipment to treat COVID-19 is also a factor. But it is also vitally necessary to have healthcare providers to make use of such equipment, with trained...
…be necessary for providers themselves to step in and act as advocates. Referring patients to current
CDC guidelines by age and current vaccination status to reduce community spread is essential. Providers must also have strategies to employ to talk through vaccine resistance.
As well as keeping providers informed regarding how to deal with patients psychologically to maximize care, keeping abreast of infection levels regarding vaccinated and unvaccinated patients is likewise critical. This can help on a larger scale to promote awareness of the protective effects of vaccination, and which specific patients and comorbidities still give rise to a higher risk of contracting a severe infection.
Conclusion: Two Steps to Prevent Future occurrences
As a healthcare manager, addressing the current crisis requires a two-pronged approach. First, staffing shortages in the long and short-term must be addressed, to ensure patients still receive quality care. This is also important to reduce the likelihood of future crises, due to provider burnout and being overwhelmed by patient numbers. Second, the hospital must have a vocal effort in pro-vaccination campaigns, both to protect staff and also to reduce the likelihood of…
