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Prakash Chandran (Host):   This St. Joseph’s Health Medcast COVID-19 podcast was recorded on July 24, 2020. Although the cases of COVID-19 are increasing, it’s important to remember that medical centers are taking proactive measures to ensure safe and high quality treatment for all. Today we’re talking about it with Dr. Phillip Falcone, the medical director of quality at St. Joseph’s Health. Dr. Falcone is a surgeon with 28 years of experience operating at St. Joseph’s Health. He obtained a master’s degree in healthcare leadership and now works to support the commitment to delivering the highest quality of care to all patients. This is St. Joseph’s Health Medcast from St. Joseph’s Health. I'm Prakash Chandran. So Dr. Falcone, we’re months into this pandemic. I know you and the team at St. Joseph’s have made some adjustments. So what are the new protocols in place to keep patients safe and healthy?

Philip Falcone, MD (Guest):   Well, we have a variety of protocols that we have instituted here at the hospital to make it as safe as possible for patients to receive the care that they need and require now that we are past the worst part of this pandemic. One of the protocols that we have is a separate area for COVID free zone, if you will. That is designed to allow patients to come through our facility and not be in area where actual COVID patients are being treated. So these COVID free zones exist both here in the hospital as well as at our outpatient surgery centers. We also have a care concierge that helps to deliver patients from the door to their destination so that they are able to find their way through the hospital in a safe and effective manner. We’re also doing very effective cleaning and, in fact, in some areas enhanced cleaning that is done to the latest CDC guidelines and helps us to maintain as high a quality as possible of all the touch surfaces and any areas that patients might come in contact with. We’re also doing mandatory pretesting of all of our patients who are coming in for surgeries or procedures to verify that they are not carrying the COVID virus and therefore not liable to infect anyone else in the hospital.

Host:   Yeah. So you talked about a number of different measures that you’ve introduced there, and I want to unpack some of them. Let’s start with the mandatory pretesting services. Just talk a little bit more about what that entails.

Dr. Falcone:   So what we’re doing there is every patient—and this is actually part of the New York State Department of Health guidelines that they have issued to us. We are required to test every patient who is having an elective surgical procedure or any elective procedure here at the hospital or at one of our surgery centers. The patient must be tested for COVID and must be negative for COVID within a five day period prior to their procedure. We then ask them to be very careful about self-quarantining themselves so that they don’t come in contact with any other person who could be exposed so that we maintain a safe as possible level for the patients as well as our providers. When these patients come into the hospital, we can be fairly comfortable in knowing that they have not got this disease.

Host:   Yeah, that’s very reassuring to hear. You also talked about a COVID free zone. What measures are you putting into place to ensure that that is the case?

Dr. Falcone:   So what we’re doing with many of our areas—for instance in our operating rooms—we are keeping the COVID positive patients, those that require urgent care and have to be operated on. We’re keeping separate operating rooms available for those patients, and other operating rooms are being designated for patients who have tested negative and are therefore not at risk for COVID. We’re also doing, as I said, the enhanced cleaning of many of the operating rooms are having that done. We’re also using an extra measure which is a vapor hydrogen peroxide technique that can actually can kill many bacteria and viruses, and we’re using that in each of our operating rooms sequentially to verify that we have reduced or eliminated as much as possible the risk of having any viral contamination in those rooms.

Host:   Finally talk to us a little bit about the care concierge that you mentioned.

Dr. Falcone:   This is a concept where we felt the patients coming in are certainly apprehensive given that they have not been in a hospital perhaps at all or now with the COVID risks they are more fearful. We have people who are dedicated to helping those patients get through this process more efficiently and more safely. So we helped to guide them from the minute they arrive at the hospital. We take them to where they need to be. We reassure them. We help them to find their way through the facility and make sure that their time here is as short as possible but also that they receive everything that they need to be as safe as possible.

Host:   What about the patients and staff members and visitors? How can they ensure that they're safe? Are they screened before coming in?

Dr. Falcone:   Yes. Every patient and every visitor, in fact every employee, who comes into the hospital has a mandatory screening process that they have to go through where they answer questions regarding their health and travel history, for instance. Then they are provided with a temperature check and a new mask to wear in the hospital. We have a mandatory masking policy here in the hospital. So every person, patient, visitor, or employee, whoever is here in the hospital must wear a mask at all times. We’re also stressing the importance of social distancing and, of course, washing hands. We have a number of hand sanitizer stations throughout the entire hospital that allow us to help people maintain a good quality of hygiene while they're here. Certainly, the required masking and social distancing, I think, will go a long way to reducing the risk of spreading this disease.

Host:   Certainly. You're still going to get people that are a little bit apprehensive about coming in. So I wanted to ask you about the availability of any virtual care options that you might offer.

Dr. Falcone:   Yes. We have been instituting over the last few months a significant number of telemedicine options, which patients have appreciated significantly because of the fact that they don’t absolutely have to be here in person to see their physicians. So we have ramped that up very quickly in fact. Patients and physicians both appreciate the ability to interact on a telemedicine visit over an iPad or other device so that they can get the information and be treated without have to actually to physically coming into a physicians office or coming in here to the hospital. We see a good role for that coming forward because I think it does make it much more safe for the average patient who doesn’t absolutely have to be seen physically by their provider.

Host:   Yeah. One of the things I wanted to ask you about is I know that there’s been an alarming number of people that did not go to the emergency department or seek care during the height of this pandemic during fear, which is understandable. What advice might you have for those that are afraid of health centers currently?

Dr. Falcone:   Well, what I would say to them is that we have taken this extremely seriously and we understand their apprehension. Yet at the same time, probably one of the safest and cleanest places all around right now are hospitals. We have done everything we can as we've discussed here today to make the environment as safe as possible. We have a very high level of appreciation for the anxiety and the apprehension, but at the same time we really don’t want patients to not get or seek the care that we need. I think what we’re seeing is patients who are not coming here are actually having worse problems with things like heart attacks and strokes and other medical issues that should have been taken care of or could have been taken care of very well at a hospital or emergency department and because patients were apprehensive they did not come in. So please understand that we are doing everything we can to make this as safe and healthy a place as possible and that your health will be better if you are seen as you need to for any urgent condition.

Host:   Well Dr. Falcone, I certainly know that I feel more comfortable knowing all of the measures that St. Joseph’s has put in place. Is there anything else that you want to share with our audience before we wrap up here?

Dr. Falcone:   No. I think that I would just reinforce, again, the three most common and basic measures that everybody should consider which is to wear a mask, physically distance, and continue to wash your hands. Doing those three basic things will help us to reduce the problems going forward.

Host:   Well Dr. Falcone, I truly appreciate you educating us today. Thank you so much for your time. For our listeners, it is essential that people wear their masks, physically distance from others, and wash their hands often just like Dr. Falcone said. For more information, please visit wevegotthissjh.org. If you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and check out the full podcast library for topics of interest to you. This is St. Joseph’s Health Medcast from St. Joseph’s Health. I'm Prakash Chandran. Thank you so much for listening.