MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

As we speak marks three years because the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in the US. In fact, the pandemic has triggered huge ache and loss, however it has additionally ushered in huge modifications in how well being care is delivered in America. Telemedicine and advances in in-home care now permit sufferers who would have beforehand been hospitalized to obtain remedy the place they stay. The fast growth and deployment of COVID vaccines could imply that vaccines for different illnesses will achieve approval at a a lot sooner tempo. However the pandemic has additionally shed new mild on well being care inequities going through folks with restricted incomes and sometimes folks of coloration.

Right here to speak by means of a few of these points is Eugene A. Woods. He is the chief government officer of Advocate Well being. That is a big community of not-for-profit well being care methods primarily based primarily within the Southeast and the Midwest. It is headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., and that is the place we reached him. Eugene Woods, thanks a lot for becoming a member of us.

EUGENE WOODS: Michel, it is nice to be with you.

MARTIN: So let me begin with telemedicine and at-home care. And look. It is onerous to foretell the long run, however do you suppose that this has been a everlasting change in how well being care is delivered exterior of a typical type of physician’s workplace go to?

WOODS: I actually do, Michel. And I feel what we have proven within the darkest days of the pandemic is that we are able to take care of people who find themselves actually, actually sick safely within the consolation of their very own properties. Three years in the past, for many of the nation, telehealth was principally a futuristic factor, and now it is a actuality. We have truly achieved at Advocate Well being over 3 million digital visits with our sufferers and located the outcomes truly are simply nearly as good as when sufferers are within the hospital.

MARTIN: I used to be going to ask you about that as a result of you possibly can completely see the place, you already know, getting access to telemedicine makes it much more handy. However are the outcomes the identical or related sufficient?

WOODS: Yeah, I feel, you already know, we’re very clearly very particular about what the admission standards are for anyone that goes to the hospital at house versus the precise bodily hospital. However we have now proven that we are able to deal with sufferers very safely and nicely at house. And I feel to this point, we have seen about 6,000 sufferers in our hospital-at-home program. And it’ll save us sooner or later constructing a brand new hospital. The care that we can present in folks’s properties shall be rather more reasonably priced and, to your level, rather more handy. And the outcomes, we expect, are going to be superb as nicely.

MARTIN: However what about nursing? I imply, you already know, there’s one factor to form of see a doctor who’s going to place your care plan in movement. However past the hospital-at-home mannequin, is there a solution to apply that to nursing?

WOODS: Completely. In March of 2021, we launched a pilot program, and we known as it our Digital Nurse Commentary Program. And it is actually a revolutionary care mannequin. So it permits a nurse to observe a affected person by way of a digicam in a distant location. And you consider the nursing scarcity that everyone knows about. Properly, one digital nurse can monitor a number of sufferers at a time and alert the bedside staff in the event that they see a affected person that wants help or care. Nevertheless it permits us to increase our clinicians. And we all know there is a nationwide scarcity of physicians, of nurses, of lab techs and respiratory techs, and many others.

MARTIN: So you possibly can see the place folks is likely to be involved about that. So let’s maintain that thought for a minute and type of return to that query on the finish of whether or not folks actually are getting the type of monitoring that they need to be getting if in case you have folks doing that. However so let’s maintain that thought for a minute, and let’s speak about one of many different issues that I feel folks type of intrinsically have absorbed, however they might not take into consideration – is that the urgency of the pandemic allowed for vaccines to be developed and rolled out in file time. And we’re not simply speaking about vaccines. We’re speaking about efficient vaccines, OK?

WOODS: Yeah.

MARTIN: So how has this affected vaccine growth for different diseases, or has it?

WOODS: It is unlocked a brand new door of scientific prospects going ahead. That messenger RNA methodology, which primarily teaches the physique to make its personal drugs, is not new. It has been used for HIV and Ebola. However the COVID utility was new. And now we’re studying that it may have many extra purposes going ahead. Just lately, we’re on the cusp of a vaccination utilizing messenger RNA for RSV, which is that respiratory illness that is going round.

MARTIN: So we have talked about some actually constructive developments which have arisen out of the form of the tragedy that was COVID-19. However, you already know, COVID-19 make clear well being care inequities that have been already there. Given, you already know, the place you are positioned and given the variety of the those who your community serves, I wish to – simply discuss to me about that.

WOODS: The pandemic laid naked for all to see the numerous inequities which have at all times existed, as you say, however simply weren’t within the information on a regular basis. I feel it actually introduced it to nationwide consideration. And proper now, we have now a chance to step again and take a look at the teachings realized, what’s labored and the way we actually work to resolve well being care inequities. At Advocate Well being, we’re committing, as a brand new group, $2 billion to handle well being inequities. And we have now a nationwide middle of well being fairness that we’re growing in Milwaukee. So we imagine that well being care supply methods, working along with authorities and public officers, can take the teachings realized from the pandemic and actually start to make actual progress on disparities.

MARTIN: However do you suppose that we are going to? I imply, is there some accountability that requires that to occur? For instance, if you talked in regards to the type of the digital nursing mannequin, you possibly can type of see the place…

WOODS: Yeah.

MARTIN: …That would widen inequities as an alternative of narrowing them. I imply, you possibly can say, oh, nice, one nurse can monitor, you already know, 5 totally different rooms. Properly, that is like saying, one trainer can monitor 5 totally different lecture rooms, however that is the type of factor that individuals with means would by no means tolerate. You recognize what I imply? They’d by no means tolerate. They nonetheless need one trainer in a category with 15 children. So the query is, do you suppose that – what’s your – what provides you confidence or a minimum of hope that these improvements will truly scale back these inequities as an alternative of simply preserve or widen them?

WOODS: If we seemed on the hospital-at-home program, we had 30% of those who we cared for have been folks of coloration. And really, we have been in a position to attain into different corners of the group that may not have had entry, transportation and so forth, and perhaps had household conditions that required them to remain in the home collectively, for example. And we have been in a position to present that our information allowed us to achieve extra folks, not much less.

MARTIN: Seeking to the long run, what provides you confidence that these modifications will enhance fairness and never simply, you already know, preserve the established order or, the truth is, worsen it? – and also you’re saying primarily based in your expertise.

WOODS: Our expertise is we have been in a position, for instance, to host the most important, most profitable mass vaccination occasions in your entire nation, the place we had 30,000 folks vaccinated in a single weekend, and we had a shot in arms each 4.5 seconds. How have been we in a position to do this? The one manner that we have been in a position to do this is as a result of we partnered with companies. We partnered with the federal government and elected officers. And my confidence is the connection that we have constructed in the course of the pandemic – if we proceed to construct on them, then I feel that is actually the core of fixing the inequity challenges and, fairly frankly, the societal and alter challenges that we face that require all of us working collectively in the identical path.

MARTIN: That is Eugene Woods. He is the CEO of Advocate Well being. It is a big not-for-profit well being care system headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., and we reached him there. Mr. Woods, thanks a lot for becoming a member of us and sharing this experience with us.

WOODS: Thanks. It is nice to be with you.

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