Below is a message from WVU Health System President and CEO Albert L. Wright, Jr. send to WVU Medicine colleagues, Thursday, March 19.
WVU Medicine colleagues,
Thanks for everything you’re doing at this critical time. We are all inspired by the strength of this team and are grateful for your outstanding work! Below are a few items we wanted to share with you.
Think Marathon, not Sprint
You should expect this crisis to extend over the next several weeks, and possibly longer, so be sure to pace yourself and get rest, and above all else, be kind and supportive to each other. Also be sure to take time for yourself and tend to your own health, spiritual, and emotional needs – we need everyone to stay strong and healthy. Our hospitals have all created robust surge plans and continue to refine them every day – we’re doing everything possible to prepare for this. Remember too that an ounce of prevention now is a million pounds of cure, so continue to practice social distancing and to wash your hands frequently for 20 seconds with soap. This will greatly help to reduce the transmission of the virus.
Testing Sites
Our test sites are all up and running, and by all accounts, our first day in the field was very successful. We tested more than 160 patients yesterday, and continue to expand our ability to conduct tests by securing more supplies and expanding the phone triage team. We are grateful for everyone who made this happen so quickly!
Blood Supply
Nationally and locally our supply is low. We’ve asked our senior leadership to think about how to conserve existing supplies and how we could safely work with potential donors keeping in mind the need for social-distancing.
Dining and Waiting Areas
All our hospitals and clinics should look at their dining and waiting areas to ensure they are “social distancing-enabled.” In other words, there should be an appropriate amount of space between the tables in the dining areas and the seats in the waiting areas. At this point our dining areas should be reserved for just our staff. (This is a WV State Health Department mandate.) Visitors are welcome to purchase food on a carry-out basis, but may not use the dining areas.
Relaxed Telemedicine Standards and Virtual Care Response Plan
We are enabling capabilities and providing operational guidance for all ambulatory clinics to deploy MyWVUChart Video Visits beyond our current ASO and accountable care organization (ACO) patients. We are offering training to clinic managers beginning today. We are also enabling capabilities and operationalizing Virtual Urgent Care through MyWVUChart with scheduled visits Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., and Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Hours will be evaluated and potentially expanded based on need. These will be patient self-scheduled and referred, and we will bill them to insurance. However, cost-sharing will not be enforced during the COVID-19 response period. Our plan is to have all this operational by this Monday, March 23 and roll it out to our patients immediately.
Always Remember HIPAA
Link to remote workforce privace guidelines. We would ask that you take a moment to review them, and always remember that we have an obligation to safeguard the privacy of all our patients.
External Portal to Access Updates and News
You can now access this information and other COVID-related information that we are publishing by accessing our new external portal. This will enable WVU Medicine employees outside our network to access this information and updates more easily from their mobile devices or from home if they do not have access via Citrix. You can access the portal using this link - https://portal.wvumedicine.org/. Simply use your WVU Medicine login credentials to access this resource. We will also continue to update the internal COVID-19 Connect site.