Safe Care Commitment

I'm Tom Lindquist and today and today I'm going to talk to Dr. Penny Wheeler about safe care as part of Allina Health Aetna's Coexisting with Covid series.

Because for some staying healthy isn't as simple as staying home.

We know some people have been delaying and even avoiding care.

What long-term effect could that have on them?

Yeah, one of the things we're concerned about is people with chronic care issues like diabetes or heart disease.

If they don't come in and get those attended to, they can have complications assuredly.

In fact, we're seeing greater complications in a way that we haven't seen them before.

For a diabetic, somebody suffering from diabetes, to come in with really high sugar and diabetic comas even are becoming more common, somebody with heart disease coming in with a heart attack that actually has progressed more than we've seen in the past.

I understand with the uncertainty that people might worry about safety but we have very safe care practices.

We have multiples forms in which we can give it to you.

If we can give it to you safely, avoided care is not safe care.

So you and I have discussed the fact that many people have been avoiding doctor office visits during this pandemic.

What does care look like during the pandemic?

A typical visit online, it really looks much like the interview we're having here today, Tom.

We have telemedicine capabilities where you're actually seeing a video of the physician interacting with you.

We went from doing 20 to 30 televisits a day to now doing up to 6,000 a day and the satisfaction for those visits is very high.

So it's really changed the character of things, making care more accessible and more convenient.

And when it's needed, we made sure that in-person care is as safe as possibly done.

So there's minimal contact until it's needed.

Social distancing, everybody wearing a mask.

Every visitor, every patient, every employee is screened for any symptoms.

We don't have people congregate in places and then have your care team come in with all the personal protective equipment needed both for you and for them to assure your safety.

I'm interested in your thoughts on the future of virtual care in general.

The convenience factor and the accessibility factor cannot be denied.

And we want to move care as close to home as possible.

We were taking care of a gentleman in greater Minnesota who told us that because of the virtual care option, he actually saved four hours of travel that he could avoid by not having to travel into the clinic and felt like he got exactly the care he needed for what was ailing him.

The reliance and the relationship with the healthcare provider is at its peak.

At the same time, you know, it's changed things in that we have to wear certain protective equipment that would sometimes cause what's a physical separation but the caring shows through.

So we want to make sure people are safe but the compassion and care is always there and I think that a lot of the people who work in our organization are feeling like, you know, this is a time when the community needs them most and they feel grateful to be there for the people they're serving.