Emerging from the initial intense days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tanner Health System is moving toward normal operations this month — stronger than ever, better connected to its community and with a team of health care professionals who have been demonstrated their skills and compassion far beyond expectations on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis.
COVID-19 is not going away anytime soon. Tanner’s senior leaders and more than 3,600 healthcare professionals are looking beyond the pandemic to a new normal, in which Tanner will continue to care for those stricken with the disease — with infection prevention always top-of-mind — while regaining its focus on its core mission to help its neighbors improve their health.
Diagnostic imaging and elective outpatient surgeries are now back on the calendar at Tanner’s hospitals.
The system’s four emergency departments and most urgent care locations have remained open for patients with all conditions through the crisis. These include: Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton, Tanner Medical Center/Villa Rica, Higgins General Hospital in Bremen and Tanner Medical Center/East Alabama in Wedowee, and urgent care facilities in Carrollton and Villa Rica. The Bremen urgent care location is temporarily closed and Tanner Primary Care of Wedowee continues with reduced hours.
Due to the growing popularity and convenience of virtual appointments, telehealth is continuing at Tanner Medical Group practices and Willowbrooke at Tanner for behavioral health. Through the new Tanner Care Your Way, patients can receive the care that’s right for them, whether in-person or virtual telehealth appointments with Tanner Medical Group or Willowbrooke at Tanner clinicians, or in-person visits at the system’s emergency departments and urgent care locations.
Lessons learned during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic response will become mainstays of the system’s ongoing operations as well as future pandemic planning.
Emergency preparedness is ongoing
Extensive, ongoing emergency preparedness helped Tanner swing into crisis mode quickly early in the COVID-19 crisis and prepare for the anticipated patient surge, said Tanner’s Chief Nursing Officer Deborah Matthews, RN. And the shared experience of Tanner’s response has made the system and its team stronger.
“The reality is we’ve been planning for pandemics for years. As the COVID-19 crisis unfolded, we were well prepared to plan for each critical stage – with the staff, beds, facilities, equipment and other resources,” said Matthews.
“Our teams came together, bringing their collective experience and knowledge, to assess what might be coming, what we had already in place, and, importantly, what we still needed,” said Chief Operating Officer Greg Schulenburg. “Some of our critical actions were already in our pandemic play book and others were born from the unique dynamics of this situation.”
Critical actions taken across the system to ensure preparedness and prevent disease spread included:
- Implemented the Emergency Operations Center to coordinate and streamline response activities.
- Already rigorous infection prevention — a Tanner specialty every day — was stepped up immediately to protect patients, staff and the community.
- Tanner’s matrix of hospitals was maximized to designate Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton and Tanner Medical Center/Villa Rica as treatment hospitals for COVID-19 patients as well as patients with other needs. If needed, overflow non-COVID-19 patients could be transferred to Higgins General Hospital in Bremen or Tanner Medical Center/East Alabama in Wedowee.
- Tents were erected at the system’s four emergency departments (EDs) and a COVID-19 care center was established so that patients potentially ill with COVID-19 could be separated from those seeking care for more routine aches, pains and illnesses.
- Initially, a rigorous visitor screening process was implemented at all hospitals for COVID-19 symptoms and exposure. Full visitor restrictions then went into effect, and the hospitals took the additional steps of postponing all elective and other non-urgent procedures for the protection of patients, staff and the community.
- Telehealth appointments, a new offering for Tanner, were launched to provide virtual doctor’s appointments for Tanner Medical Group and Willowbrooke at Tanner.
- Tanner Care Your Way allowed patients to select the way they’d like to receive care, including emergency department appointments.
Tanner is here for our community – our community is here for Tanner
Tanner also quickly assessed its inventories of critical infection prevention supplies and chemicals which included pandemic-designated supplies from its emergency preparedness efforts. Personal protective equipment (PPE) such as face masks, shields and gowns — as well as cleaning and disinfecting materials — were at the top of not only Tanner’s list, but also that of many consumers and other hospital systems.
For those high priority needs, Tanner found support close to home from its community, including individuals and corporate citizens.
For example, thousands of cloth face masks were hand or machine-stitched and donated by volunteers throughout the region for use by patients and staff. Dozens of neighbors volunteered to make special, plastic face shields for Tanner staff to provide protection during patient care from respiratory droplets associated with COVID-19 and known to carry the disease.
RH2O Engineering and Southwire Company stepped forward to ensure Tanner had ample supplies of bleach and alcohol-based cleaning and disinfecting chemicals and Omni Apparel manufactured 4,000 hospital gowns for use by hospital staff.
Individual, club and business donations included more than 9,000 masks of different types, 27,308 pairs of gloves, 212 bottles of hand sanitizer and 351 tubs of disinfecting wipes.
The support didn’t end there.
Unsolicited donations of meals, coffee and special treats from restaurants, churches, clubs and other organizations arrived at all hours of the day and night, nourishing the bodies and souls of Tanner caregivers. In all, more than 9,000 meals were donated across the Tanner system.
Signs proclaiming “Heroes Work Here” sprang up on the front lawn of Tanner's hospitals, courtesy of Sign Gypsies.
Across the region, red ribbons were tied on mailboxes, front doors and lamp posts for the #RedRibbonsforTannerHeroes campaign, inspired by local newspaper columnist Mimi Gentry. Hundreds of Tanner friends and neighbors flocked virtually to the newly created Tanner Heroes Facebook page to leave words of encouragement and support for the Tanner’s team members. And monetary donations flowed into the Tanner Foundation’s Protect Tanner Heroes Fund.
“Tanner is here for our community and our community has always been there for Tanner, too. The overwhelming response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been truly humbling and heartwarming,” said Denise Taylor, chief community health and brand officer for Tanner.
“As we identified needs, our friends and neighbors immediately stepped forward to help in so many ways. And in the case of the meals and special treats for our people, we didn’t even have to ask. It was a spontaneous outpouring of support that meant so much to our people through some very long and tough days and nights. We are so grateful,” said Taylor.
Looking forward toward a stronger Tanner team
The Tanner team is stronger and much closer because of their shared COVID-19 experience, said Schulenburg.
“They’ve been in the trenches together through this crisis and they’ve leaned on one another a lot. Our professionals stepped up, handling what was needed to care for our patients and working tirelessly. Adding to the complexity of the care situation, we were also adding new processes so there was continuous change and improvement. We train for pandemics, but some skills just can’t be taught. You learn by going through it and you learn together. They’ll carry this experience with them in support of Tanner and its patients,” said Schulenburg.
A focus on patient safety
Keeping patients, staff and visitors safe is Tanner’s priority. Infection prevention is top of mind every day and with every patient across the system.
“We are spending every day determining the best course for our patients, how we can protect them and how we can protect our staff. We want our neighbors to have confidence that they can come and receive their care now, in an elective surgery of some other type of care. We are on it every day. Infection prevention is not a one-and-done,” said Schulenburg. “We are following the guidance of our own highly-skilled and experienced Tanner infection prevention experts as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other state and national institutions.”
While returning to normal operations, Tanner will continue its infection prevention practices, including:
· Appropriate use of telehealth visits and in-person appointments
· Pre-screening of Tanner Medical Group patients before appointments for symptoms and potential COVID-19 exposure
· Required facial coverings for everyone — medical staff, patients, visitors — while in hospitals and Tanner Medical Group practices
· Hand sanitizing stations at all entries, exits and other critical areas within hospitals and Tanner Medical Group practices
· Social distance accommodations during patient flow, including appointment scheduling
· Rigorous and frequent cleaning and sanitizing of Tanner facilities, equipment and surfaces throughout the system, including a robot utilizing ultraviolet light to destroy the virus at the cellular level
· Personal protective equipment (PPE) and hand hygiene protocols, established by the CDC, for all healthcare staff
· Continued visitor restriction in all five hospitals and Tanner Medical group practices except when special assistance is needed
· Daily monitoring of all healthcare staff for illness
Managing visitors at Tanner facilities
For the near future, visitor restrictions at all Tanner facilities will remain in place with modifications as guidelines allow, according to Matthews.
“We are looking at how we can begin to ease the visitor restrictions so that our patients can have greater access to their loved ones while hospitalized. This is a big issue for all of us. Keeping everybody safe is our priority. There’s no timeline yet,” said Matthews.
Facility changes for future pandemics
Work is already underway to make physical changes to improve Tanner’s response to future pandemics — including ongoing COVID-19 needs. It’s a continuous improvement process.
The most significant change will be the creation of additional individual negative pressure rooms at Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton and Tanner Medical Center/Villa Rica. According to Matthews, negative pressure is an isolation technique used to prevent the spread of disease by not recirculating air from these rooms to other areas.
“We did everything quickly to get the needed negative pressure areas set up, so we still have a lot of temporary walls, barriers and fans that will be removed as we have permanent solutions in place,” said Matthews.
Within 30 to 45 days, Matthews hopes to have the additional permanent negative pressure rooms operational in medical surgical units and the intensive care units (ICU) in Carrollton and Villa Rica.
Schulenburg stressed the importance of having flexible options and resources to meet the needs of patients.
As always, Tanner is here for its patients, close to home.