Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers have taken new approaches to patient care, likely leading to headway in reducing mortality rates and length of stays in intensive care units, Atlantic Health System CEO Brian Gragnolati told CNBC.
Mr. Gragnolati's Morristown, N.J.-based health system has 17,000 employees.
About five months into the pandemic, Atlantic "has seen tremendous progress in clinical innovation," he told CNBC.
Mr. Gragnolati specifically referenced changes regarding use of ventilators. Earlier during the national crisis, he said Atlantic would "immediately" put patients on ventilators if they were transferred to the ICU with COVID-19 related severe respiratory challenges. But he told CNBC medical workers realized putting these patents on their stomachs — and using "high concentration of oxygen" through CPAP and BiPAP machines — was the better care approach.
Mr. Gragnolati said these new approaches have "driven down dramatically both the mortality but also the length of stay in our ICUs."
During his interview with CNBC, Mr. Gragnolati also referenced Gilead's remdesivir drug to treat COVID-19, saying Atlantic is now "using it a little earlier in the process and that has had some very positive results."
As of 8:15 a.m. CDT July 22, there were 2,018 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population in New Jersey, according to an analysis by The New York Times.