Restart Planning Guidance Update
Posted on by CATALYSIS
- How much COVID-19 space is necessary?
- Are the expanded spaces held in reserve or put back to prior use?
- Do you prepare the expanded spaces with things like permanent oxygen and sinks?
- Meet with front-line staff to get ideas on
- New huddle topics
- Safety standards
- Remove new processes implemented that are not adding value
- Adjustments to staffing
- How do you safely restart your cafeteria service?
- How will ancillary services safely deal with COVID & non-COVID patients?
- PT, OT, Imaging, etc.
- Waiting areas need to be sanitized regularly
- Communicate COVID scheduling changes with referring and admitting practices
- Do you need a dedicated communications person/team for partners?
- Establishing a Governance Council for decision making still harder than it seems
- Create a staffing plan six weeks out. Your team will need a break. Even those coming off a furlough will find stress in the new COVID-19 environment.
- Collaboratively create a “Go/No-GO” checklist.
- Staff are experiencing trauma and it is incumbent upon all of us to provide counseling and needed care.
- New sanitation processes need standards. Staff need to be trained. Inspection is mandatory.
- Create messaging & signage on why patient PPE is important
- Plan the Command Center wind down. Do not totally dismantle
- Get back to SAFETY. Many safety processes have been bypassed or ignored for all the right reasons.
- Prioritize and stabilize versus solving all the problems at once.
- Set new goals and targets. Track and measure. Celebrate successes
- Closely monitor the supply chain. Validate delivery dates and accurate received quantities. Do not let safety stocks diminish.
- Identify skills that were in short supply during the last surge. Create a plan to train up and expand capacity
- Leadership get involved: What is your safety stock quantities and how were those calculated?
- Number 1 priority: Establish a Governance Council
- Becker’s recommend 6 P’s for the Governance Council
- Plan (Develop one)
- Policy (Know policy & regulations)
- Procedure (Track backlogged procedures/visits)
- Process (Design new processes and protocols)
- Place/PPE (Set Place & PPE standards)
- Patient (Engage the patient)
- Becker’s recommend 6 P’s for the Governance Council
- Number 2 priority: Apply for PHSSEF Grants ASAP
- Priority 3: Restart plans have to include the fact that COVID-19 will be here for a while
- How do you bring back furloughed staff?
- Some may now have daycare issues trying to send their kids back
- HR coordination necessary
- Union seniority a consideration?
- License/certifications current and not elapsed?
- Training on new procedures
- Training on COVID-19 Patient Care
- What are the new procedures for patients?
- Patient arrival
- Patient waiting room distancing
- Family/visitors
- Recovery
- Discharge
- Communication plan for patients, family & staff
- Scheduling
- How to deal with COVID-I9 testing prior to surgery
- How to get pre-authorizations done ahead of time
- How to validate patients still covered by insurance (laid off?)
- Do you have enough schedulers and phone call capability?
- How to communicate with surgeon’s clinics
- How to communicate new safety procedures
- Safety
- Intubation may require less staff around patient
- What are the new processes/standards?
- Will it take longer for each procedure due to new safety protocols?
- PPE Stocks
- COVID-19 PPE needs for patient flow will continue for ambulatory, drive-thru clinics, inpatient procedures and now outpatient procedures
- What are your safety stock percenages?
- How did you arrive at that? Hopefully using standard deviations
- Built the appropriate safety stock for:
- Current patient flows
- New patient flows
- A fall pandemic
- What is your forecasted PPE usage vs your actual PPE usage each day?
- PDSA
- Increased PPE demand beyond historical use for outpatient procedures
- Staff sanitizer including office staff
- Are dominant areas appropriately sanitized for the restart?
- Is all equipment current for calibration and certification?
- Is a local Safety Officer necessary for the initial restart?
- How do you communicate to patients about safety and their concerns?
- Surgery Centers & clinics: if a patient has to be admitted, are you familiar with the hospital’s new protocols?
- Intubation may require less staff around patient
- What is the plan if a “spike” or “mini-surge” occurs and you must defer again?
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