Healthcare Industry Actions to Protect Patients During the COVID-19 Pandemic – April 21, 2020

The Healthcare Leadership Council is comprised of leading companies from every sector of American healthcare.  During the COVID-19 pandemic, we will be sharing examples of actions these companies are taking to protect and assist the public and combat the virus’s spread.  If you would like assistance in reaching a representative for any of these companies, please contact Kelly Fernandez at kfernandez@hlc.org.

• In a lifesaving collaboration between two Healthcare Leadership Council members, the Cleveland Clinic dispatched 10 physicians and 15 nurses to multiple New York-Presbyterian Hospitals to help handle rising caseloads in one of the regions hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Change Healthcare has launched a resource hub to assist healthcare providers in gaining access to the emergency federal funding made available through the CARES Act passed by Congress. A Change executive was also quoted in Modern Healthcare recommending flexibility in administration of HIPAA privacy laws to better enable information to be used for public health purposes during this health crisis.

• HMS, a leading healthcare technology and analytics firm, points out that the COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t eased the acute challenges presented by the opioid crisis and, in fact, patients with opioid use disorder are particularly vulnerable to the lung-compromising ramifications of the coronavirus. The company used its website to discuss additional resources available now for opioid treatment.

• An employee with global pharmaceutical company Mallinckrodt explained why she is using her nursing background to volunteer in New York City hospitals to help treat patients with COVID-19. The company is also providing pallets of needed personal protective equipment to hospitals.

• SSM Health, a health system with 23 hospitals in four midwestern states, announced it is expanding its telehealth services so patients can speak to their physicians remotely for diagnosis, care maintenance, and medication prescribing purposes. SSM is also offering free virtual evaluations for COVID-19 on its website.

• An article in the Wall Street Journal points out how Teladoc is enabling healthcare needs to be met in this COVID-19 period of social distancing. Medical professionals on the Teladoc system are conducting 20,000 remote patient appointments per day, a volume that has doubled since the first week of March.