As COVID-19 cases rise across the country, it is important that hospitals proactively manage care for patients without COVID-19, five health experts wrote in an article for Harvard Business Review.
The experts, a group of physicians and a healthcare delivery systems expert, laid out four strategies for healthcare organizations to make sure they are meeting the needs of non-COVID-19 patients in the midst of coronavirus surges:
1. Outpatient clinicians should identify and initiate telemedicine services for patients who are at high risk of requiring inpatient or emergency care at a hospital to help prevent strain on emergency departments or inpatient beds.
2. Hospitals in a particular region should consider combining essential care services for noncoronavirus patients at one location. For example, hospitals within a region could create a single designated location for cancer care or transplant services.
3. Hospitals also may consider grouping COVID-19 patients with the same underlying conditions in "cohorted wards," so specialists relevant to the underlying condition can provide care alongside clinicians caring for COVID-19 needs. This will help reduce strain on inpatient capacity throughout the hospital.
4. Post-acute care settings, such as nursing homes, rehabilitation facilities and long-term acute care facilities, should join forces to establish regional, specialized centers for both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients to improve patient flow from hospitals.