Our healthcare system is in the midst of a crisis - struggling to ramp up quickly to respond to patient demand in response to COVID-19. Appropriately so, organizations are focusing on the immediate crisis. However, it would be wise to start thinking about how the healthcare system will function after the pandemic is over. Planning and preparation for healthcare post COVID-19 should be examined to explore the opportunities, challenges, and strategies that we will all face in the future. While no one knows all the answers, this webinar, originally presented April, 29th, 2020, with Dr. Kent Bottles, established health industry speaker, consultant, and thought leader, explores early lessons learned from this medical and economic crisis.
Helping Medical Professionals During COVID-19
The level of risk in patient care today is higher than most providers ever considered when choosing medicine as a profession. The war metaphors being used in the Covid-19 fight aptly fit the threat doctors are experiencing. To emotionally bolster staff and lessen residual trauma, medical leaders and front line providers can benefit from applying well refined military crisis leadership strategies.
Routine to remarkable----overnight. That’s what has happened to frontline medical triage with the rapid, unprecedented and unrelenting onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. EMT, ER and ICU staff are well-trained to handle emergency crises of all types, just not of this magnitude, intensity and duration. Medical team leaders face life threatening issues on a regular basis, but not to their own lives at the very same time. Their training and experience prepare them to rapidly assess, execute and adjust medical protocols to fit the needs of a medical crisis, and then usually the crisis ends. Reports from the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic have medical professionals describing themselves as “soldiers in the fog of war” physically exhausted and emotionally overwhelmed.
A lot Depends on What you do Now....
As I watch the world navigate the complex landscape created by the COVID-19 pandemic, I cannot help but reflect back on my own lifetime. Over the years my path has brought me my own fair share of crises and I’ve learned many leadership lessons along the way. Perhaps the biggest lesson is that having a shared purpose, vision and values on the part of those involved creates the calm required to persevere through the crisis. Afterall, we cannot manage crisis alone.
In the March 27th HBR.org article, Lessons From Italy’s Response To Coronavirus, co-authors, Gary Pisano, Raffaella Sadun and Michele Zanini examine Italy’s ineffective response to COVID-19 and the subsequent failure of other countries’ leaders to avoid them. They describe how the need for quick action and massive mobilization contributed to an ineffective decision-making process and call for a different approach, one that:
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- Is systemic
- Prioritizes learning
- Quickly scales successful experiments and shuts down ineffective ones.
A Letter to Frontline Responders
Holly Hughson is an OD consultant and change strategist, who has spent almost two decades working in high-stakes crisis response, humanitarian action and civil-military coordination. Holly's current work focuses on the human cost incurred by practitioners working on the frontlines of human suffering and vulnerability, and she serves as project advisor for “Ethics Education for Crisis Medicine” at the Centre for Military Ethics at King’s College London. In a moving tribute she shares her insights and admiration with the frontline responders of COVID-19.
A COVID-19 Test Journey
On Saturday afternoon after a long morning run, a fever came on me with a vengeance, and I had a somewhat sleepless night. Sunday morning a few other symptoms appeared, and I began to wonder if I had become infected with the COVID-19 virus. By mid-day, I used the MGH patient message portal just to let my PCP know my status when she would arrive at work after the weekend.
Taking the time for Mindfulness
With the abundance of uncertainties facing us in present day, it can be challenging to remain focused on one task at a time. Our minds are riddled with thoughts of responsibilities to take care of, meetings to attend, changes and adaptations that need to be made, and the like. When so many thoughts and concerns are circling around our mind all at once, it can feel like we are going through the motions on autopilot without truly experiencing life as it is right now in the present. Taking the time to focus and to mindfully live your best life in both your work and personal life is a critical component of long term satisfaction.
Since there was very little time between “rehearsal” and going live with remote working and virtual meetings, now is a good time for a mid-course pause. Take a moment for some self-reflection:
