Healthcare Industry Actions to Protect Patients During the COVID-19 Pandemic – April 7, 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 an interview with Becker’s Hospital Review, an executive from AmerisourceBergen, a leading healthcare distributor, describes how the company has instituted safeguards to avoid shortages of inhalers, antivirals and other supplies critical to the care and prevention of COVID-19. Using lessons learned from hurricanes in Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico, the company also has contingency plans in place to keep warehouses operating in the event of an emergency 

• The Chair of the Department of Clinical Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism at City of Hope, a renowned cancer treatment center, has published advice on the enhanced risk diabetes patients face from COVID-19 and the steps they should take to stay healthy.

• The federal government has selected the Mayo Clinic to serve as the lead institution for a National Expanded Treatment Protocol that will involve collecting plasma from patients who have recovered from COVID-19 and providing it to patients in need throughout the country. That plasma contains antibodies that can help fight the disease.

• Medtronic is collaborating with SpaceX, the initiative created by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, to develop and manufacture critical care ventilators needed by healthcare providers faced with rising numbers of COVID-19 cases. Medtronic is also publicly releasing the design specifications for one of its ventilators to allow other entities to engage in manufacturing of the device.

• New York-Presbyterian Hospital has instituted an Emergency Department Express Care program, one of the first of its kind to utilize telemedicine in an emergency room setting, to help reduce the number of non-urgent cases in waiting areas while the hospital system is treating a high number of COVID-19 patients. The program has cut average time spent in the ER from over two hours to 35-40 minutes.

• Stryker, a leading medical device manufacturer, has created an Emergency Relief Bed it is shipping to hospitals in dire need of expanding capacity to meet COVID-19 demands. It took the company just seven days to take the bed from concept to launch and Stryker anticipates producing 10,000 beds per week to meet rising demands.