WORCESTER, Mass. - COVID-19 brought on a lot of new challenges for people both in and out of healthcare. Things like mask wearing and social distancing became the norm. But surprising enough, the virus resulted in some positive changes. Changes to healthcare some never even imagined.
"Prior to COVID, we assumed that we always had to deliver care in the bricks and mortar hospital, or in the clinic, and that the home was not an ideal setting for taking care of patients," said Dr. Eric Dickson, President and CEO of UMass Memorial Health.
Dickson gathered the team which put together the DCU Center field hospital, to create a new program called 'Hospital at Home.' The thought: if care can be delivered on a massive scale in an arena field hospital, why can't it be done in someone's living room?
What You Need To Know
- UMass Memorial Health President and CEO Dr. Eric Dickson says the Hospital at Home program has become a crucial part of treating patients in a confortable environment.
- Dickson says patients being treated at home are responding to care better than those getting care in hospitals.
- Dr. Dickson also pointing to the use of video in the hospital, describing remote care as an extremely important tool moving forward.
"Five years later, our outcomes for the patients that are cared for in their home are better than the patients cared for in the bricks and mortar hospitals," said Dickson. "So when we started to see that, and the satisfaction by the patient was better, we started to say, 'what else can we do in the homes?'"
Similar to visiting homes, the idea of using video never really crossed the mind of Dickson and the team at UMass Memorial Health until the pandemic hit. Since then, it has been what he describes as a game changer.
"Now we use video interpreters all the time," Dickson said. "But we also now became much more comfortable delivering care through video. So now, we can have a paramedic go into the home through our mobile integrated health program, do labs, do a physical exam on the patient, put an iv in, deliver fluid, deliver medication."
All without having to transport the patient. Innovations Dickson says have changed healthcare forever.
"Our ability to quickly implement things as soon as you learn it, apply it, that's changed us," he said. "I think it has changed us for the better."
Dickson called the COVID-19 pandemic the biggest public health crisis in the last century, saying in a way, the healthcare industry was caught off guard when the virus reached the U.S.
Our coverage of the pandemic's fifth anniversary continues next Friday, when we sit down again with Dr. Dickson to discuss the future, and whether or not we're better suited should another epidemic rear its head.
Here is last week's story.
