Selected Podcast
Ep. 15: Working As One to Respond to Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Date: 13 March 2020 Roxanna Gapstur, President and CEO of WellSpan Health, is joined by Bob Batory, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at WellSpan, to discuss Coronavirus, and how Wellspan is making sure their workforce and patients/communities are prepared and safe.
Featuring:
Dr. Gapstur has extensive experience in strategic planning, business development and operational leadership in both ambulatory and hospital settings. She has served in multiple executive roles including chief operating officer, chief nursing officer and as a senior executive accountable for population health.
Dr. Gapstur obtained her bachelor’s degree from the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minn., and her master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Minnesota.
She was named a “Top 35 Women in Healthcare Leader” by Minnesota Women’s Health Leadership Trust in 2014. Dr. Gapstur has participated as a member and president of non-profit boards, including the Greater Twin Cities United Way, Minnesota Chapter of the National Hemophilia Foundation and the Minnesota Organization of Leaders in Nursing.
Mr. Batory has led the human resource management activities of WellSpan Health since 1991. Prior to that time, he served as director and vice president of human resources at WellSpan Gettysburg Hospital. Mr. Batory holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Bloomsburg University and a master's degree in business administration from Mount Saint Mary's College. With more than 30 years of health-care human resource management experience, he has been an active leader in the human resources profession, having served as president of associations and industry partnerships at the local, regional and state levels, including the Pennsylvania State Society of Human Resources
Roxanna Gapstur, PhD, RN | Robert (Bob) Batory, MBA
In January 2019, Roxanna Gapstur assumed the role of President and CEO of WellSpan Health. She has over 25 years of healthcare leadership experience working in group practice, academic, and integrated health care systems which included health plan operations. Prior to her appointment at WellSpan, Dr. Gapstur was a senior vice president and president within the HealthPartners system in Bloomington, Minn.Dr. Gapstur has extensive experience in strategic planning, business development and operational leadership in both ambulatory and hospital settings. She has served in multiple executive roles including chief operating officer, chief nursing officer and as a senior executive accountable for population health.
Dr. Gapstur obtained her bachelor’s degree from the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minn., and her master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Minnesota.
She was named a “Top 35 Women in Healthcare Leader” by Minnesota Women’s Health Leadership Trust in 2014. Dr. Gapstur has participated as a member and president of non-profit boards, including the Greater Twin Cities United Way, Minnesota Chapter of the National Hemophilia Foundation and the Minnesota Organization of Leaders in Nursing.
Mr. Batory has led the human resource management activities of WellSpan Health since 1991. Prior to that time, he served as director and vice president of human resources at WellSpan Gettysburg Hospital. Mr. Batory holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Bloomsburg University and a master's degree in business administration from Mount Saint Mary's College. With more than 30 years of health-care human resource management experience, he has been an active leader in the human resources profession, having served as president of associations and industry partnerships at the local, regional and state levels, including the Pennsylvania State Society of Human Resources
Transcription:
Michael Carrese: Welcome to Inspiring Health, a series of conversations with Roxanna Gapstur and other WellSpan leaders about WellSpan 2025. I'm Michael Carrese, and Roxanna, what are we going to be talking about today?
Dr. Roxanna Gapstur: Michael, today we're talking about WellSpan's response to the Coronavirus, both for our workforce and patients and communities.
Host: And who is your special guest today?
Dr. Roxanna Gapstur: I'm joined by Bob Batory, our Senior Vice President for Human Resources.
Host: Bob, thanks for joining us. Talk about this really important topic.
Robert Batory: My pleasure. Glad to be here.
Host: So Roxanna, obviously we're in an evolving situation with the development of Coronavirus. What can you tell folks about COVID-19?
Dr. Roxanna Gapstur: Well, COVID-19 is a virus that was first identified in December of the past year 2019 in China, and since then has begun spreading across several other countries and is now of course, also in the United States. And so as the number of presumptive positive cases increases, even here in Pennsylvania, we recognize that concern is heightened both in our community and with our employees. We want everyone to know that the safety of our employees and our patients and families is our number one priority and that we are continuing to evaluate the risk every single day. And develop plans and procedures to ensure the health and safety of everyone.
Host: So tell us about some of the plans we'll spend is using to prepare for this.
Dr. Roxanna Gapstur: We're following the guidance of the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There are several different webpages out there as well as conference calls that have been hosted for healthcare providers, and we're focused on preparing and responding in three areas. And those include supporting our teams, to take care of our patients, operating as one organization as a system so that we have reliable processes, and being a trusted partner and resource to our communities. So the goal of this podcast is really to let everyone know what our most recent updates are as of March 15th or so. And we'll be referencing quite a bit of information, much of which is available on the Coronavirus information center on the inet for our employees. In addition, there is an external webpage on our wellspan.org site for the general public.
Host: All right, so that's good to repeat that. You can get Coronavirus information on the coronavirus information center on the inet, and let's talk about how decisions are being made because this is a really fluid situation.
Dr. Roxanna Gapstur: It certainly is Michael and it's one where we're needing to be flexible. We have activated our System Incident Command process, which is a very structured process for emergencies and we're making decisions as one organization. There are certainly many considerations across the communities we serve, but it's not likely that any of our communities will have unique situations. Most of the things that are going to be experienced with the Coronavirus will be experienced just at different times, but will probably be similar in our communities. We're actually asking any team members who have issues or recommendations that you elevate those to the System Incident Command Center so we can plan for the entire organization. So triaging as one will benefit everyone and getting good ideas to the system. Incident Command is really important. So please elevate any questions or issues to your leader.
Host: So Bob, what policies and workforce updates have been implemented so far?
Robert Batory: First of all, we're following CDC guidelines related to staff screenings. So any team member who's traveled to the areas where Coronavirus is spreading by cruise ship recently or been exposed to someone who's tested positive, should call employee health and safety before returning to work. First ban on WellSpan sponsored travel, any travel outside of our service area for work-related purposes is now prohibited. This means any location outside of our seven County area where WellSpan has an office such as our Thurmont Maryland area. So if you're planning to attend a conference in Baltimore, Philadelphia, right now, this is prohibited for the time being. When it comes to personal travel, we can't prohibit this activity, but we encourage all of our team members to travel wisely and closely follow the CDC recommendations and guidelines. If team members choose to take personal travel into restricted areas, they may be quarantined on their own time.
Host: Well, that makes sense. And what about group meetings?
Robert Batory: Again, according to the CDC, we're foregoing large group events. These are events we hold ourselves or events we would send team members to for work purposes such as conferences. For small group meetings, we encourage people to gather wisely, consider using technology for remote meeting options. If this recommendation changes, we'll have updates available on the inet.
Host: So Roxanna, what do you see as the planning path here? How far in advance is WellSpan planning?
Dr. Roxanna Gapstur: Michael, right now we're planning about four to six weeks out since the situation's changing so quickly, the updates that we've put in place today will likely change over time. And so the items Bob just mentioned are in place until May 1st or until we have new information about the virus that creates an impetus for change. Preparation's already been underway for several weeks, as you know, and we're preparing in pretty much every area of the organization. So we've been working with our IT infrastructure to support Epic changes and remote working needs. We're looking at our signage at both inpatient and ambulatory sites so that patients and visitors who may be experiencing symptoms know how to access our services safely. We're also thinking about piloting some more innovative testing outdoors or actually intense, and we're establishing a hotline staffed by our nursing call center for staff and for the community to their questions answered.
Host: And as for clinical team members, what kind of guidance are they getting?
Dr. Roxanna Gapstur: Across our workforce, we're suggesting that hand hygiene is really our best prevention at this point. So using really good hand hygiene, using CDC recommended time limits and soap is really, really important. We're also reminding people to use the correct protective equipment appropriately when they may be caring for patients who have Coronavirus. And we have a video on our inet, which demonstrates the correct way to both put on personal protective equipment and how to take it off, so that you can keep yourself safe. We'd like to remind everyone to conserve additional supplies so that we have supplies for those clinical team members who really need to use them for caring for patients.
Host: So what else do you want people to know is we all go through this situation together? Bob let's start with you.
Robert Batory: Yeah, I think first of all just use common sense and act wisely. Consider how you can be more flexible and reduce nonessential contact or gatherings in your own areas. I think that's really important at this point.
Host: And Roxanna, what would you like to leave listeners with today?
Dr. Roxanna Gapstur: I'd like to first thank our team members who are caring for our patients and families. Thank you for being there for them during this really stressful and difficult time and thank you for being on the front lines of something that we don't know everything about it is greatly appreciated and we want to make sure that people have all the support and resources that they need to take care of patients and so with that, please let us know in the Incident Command Center what else we can do to help support you taking care of our patients. We would also ask for the flexibility of our employees as we go through this very quickly changing time. We don't always know exactly what's going to happen day to day with this virus or how quickly it will be spreading or what the new recommendations will be coming out of CDC. We are doing our very best to keep up with that information and to get those to the individual teams who need those to care for patients.
Host: Right. So everybody's got to be alert and stay informed. And as you mentioned, go to the Coronavirus Information Center on the inet for the latest information. We're going to have to leave it there for today. You've been listening to Inspiring Health, the series of conversations with Roxanna Gapstur and other WellSpan leaders about WellSpan 2025. Today, Roxanna was joined by Bob Batory, Senior Vice President at WellSpan Health and Chief Human Resources Officer. And by the way, if you've been listening to this podcast on a computer and you'd rather catch it on your phone or other mobile device, you can go to wellspan.org/inspiringhealth. I'm Michael Carrese. Thanks for listening and hope you can join us next time.
Michael Carrese: Welcome to Inspiring Health, a series of conversations with Roxanna Gapstur and other WellSpan leaders about WellSpan 2025. I'm Michael Carrese, and Roxanna, what are we going to be talking about today?
Dr. Roxanna Gapstur: Michael, today we're talking about WellSpan's response to the Coronavirus, both for our workforce and patients and communities.
Host: And who is your special guest today?
Dr. Roxanna Gapstur: I'm joined by Bob Batory, our Senior Vice President for Human Resources.
Host: Bob, thanks for joining us. Talk about this really important topic.
Robert Batory: My pleasure. Glad to be here.
Host: So Roxanna, obviously we're in an evolving situation with the development of Coronavirus. What can you tell folks about COVID-19?
Dr. Roxanna Gapstur: Well, COVID-19 is a virus that was first identified in December of the past year 2019 in China, and since then has begun spreading across several other countries and is now of course, also in the United States. And so as the number of presumptive positive cases increases, even here in Pennsylvania, we recognize that concern is heightened both in our community and with our employees. We want everyone to know that the safety of our employees and our patients and families is our number one priority and that we are continuing to evaluate the risk every single day. And develop plans and procedures to ensure the health and safety of everyone.
Host: So tell us about some of the plans we'll spend is using to prepare for this.
Dr. Roxanna Gapstur: We're following the guidance of the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There are several different webpages out there as well as conference calls that have been hosted for healthcare providers, and we're focused on preparing and responding in three areas. And those include supporting our teams, to take care of our patients, operating as one organization as a system so that we have reliable processes, and being a trusted partner and resource to our communities. So the goal of this podcast is really to let everyone know what our most recent updates are as of March 15th or so. And we'll be referencing quite a bit of information, much of which is available on the Coronavirus information center on the inet for our employees. In addition, there is an external webpage on our wellspan.org site for the general public.
Host: All right, so that's good to repeat that. You can get Coronavirus information on the coronavirus information center on the inet, and let's talk about how decisions are being made because this is a really fluid situation.
Dr. Roxanna Gapstur: It certainly is Michael and it's one where we're needing to be flexible. We have activated our System Incident Command process, which is a very structured process for emergencies and we're making decisions as one organization. There are certainly many considerations across the communities we serve, but it's not likely that any of our communities will have unique situations. Most of the things that are going to be experienced with the Coronavirus will be experienced just at different times, but will probably be similar in our communities. We're actually asking any team members who have issues or recommendations that you elevate those to the System Incident Command Center so we can plan for the entire organization. So triaging as one will benefit everyone and getting good ideas to the system. Incident Command is really important. So please elevate any questions or issues to your leader.
Host: So Bob, what policies and workforce updates have been implemented so far?
Robert Batory: First of all, we're following CDC guidelines related to staff screenings. So any team member who's traveled to the areas where Coronavirus is spreading by cruise ship recently or been exposed to someone who's tested positive, should call employee health and safety before returning to work. First ban on WellSpan sponsored travel, any travel outside of our service area for work-related purposes is now prohibited. This means any location outside of our seven County area where WellSpan has an office such as our Thurmont Maryland area. So if you're planning to attend a conference in Baltimore, Philadelphia, right now, this is prohibited for the time being. When it comes to personal travel, we can't prohibit this activity, but we encourage all of our team members to travel wisely and closely follow the CDC recommendations and guidelines. If team members choose to take personal travel into restricted areas, they may be quarantined on their own time.
Host: Well, that makes sense. And what about group meetings?
Robert Batory: Again, according to the CDC, we're foregoing large group events. These are events we hold ourselves or events we would send team members to for work purposes such as conferences. For small group meetings, we encourage people to gather wisely, consider using technology for remote meeting options. If this recommendation changes, we'll have updates available on the inet.
Host: So Roxanna, what do you see as the planning path here? How far in advance is WellSpan planning?
Dr. Roxanna Gapstur: Michael, right now we're planning about four to six weeks out since the situation's changing so quickly, the updates that we've put in place today will likely change over time. And so the items Bob just mentioned are in place until May 1st or until we have new information about the virus that creates an impetus for change. Preparation's already been underway for several weeks, as you know, and we're preparing in pretty much every area of the organization. So we've been working with our IT infrastructure to support Epic changes and remote working needs. We're looking at our signage at both inpatient and ambulatory sites so that patients and visitors who may be experiencing symptoms know how to access our services safely. We're also thinking about piloting some more innovative testing outdoors or actually intense, and we're establishing a hotline staffed by our nursing call center for staff and for the community to their questions answered.
Host: And as for clinical team members, what kind of guidance are they getting?
Dr. Roxanna Gapstur: Across our workforce, we're suggesting that hand hygiene is really our best prevention at this point. So using really good hand hygiene, using CDC recommended time limits and soap is really, really important. We're also reminding people to use the correct protective equipment appropriately when they may be caring for patients who have Coronavirus. And we have a video on our inet, which demonstrates the correct way to both put on personal protective equipment and how to take it off, so that you can keep yourself safe. We'd like to remind everyone to conserve additional supplies so that we have supplies for those clinical team members who really need to use them for caring for patients.
Host: So what else do you want people to know is we all go through this situation together? Bob let's start with you.
Robert Batory: Yeah, I think first of all just use common sense and act wisely. Consider how you can be more flexible and reduce nonessential contact or gatherings in your own areas. I think that's really important at this point.
Host: And Roxanna, what would you like to leave listeners with today?
Dr. Roxanna Gapstur: I'd like to first thank our team members who are caring for our patients and families. Thank you for being there for them during this really stressful and difficult time and thank you for being on the front lines of something that we don't know everything about it is greatly appreciated and we want to make sure that people have all the support and resources that they need to take care of patients and so with that, please let us know in the Incident Command Center what else we can do to help support you taking care of our patients. We would also ask for the flexibility of our employees as we go through this very quickly changing time. We don't always know exactly what's going to happen day to day with this virus or how quickly it will be spreading or what the new recommendations will be coming out of CDC. We are doing our very best to keep up with that information and to get those to the individual teams who need those to care for patients.
Host: Right. So everybody's got to be alert and stay informed. And as you mentioned, go to the Coronavirus Information Center on the inet for the latest information. We're going to have to leave it there for today. You've been listening to Inspiring Health, the series of conversations with Roxanna Gapstur and other WellSpan leaders about WellSpan 2025. Today, Roxanna was joined by Bob Batory, Senior Vice President at WellSpan Health and Chief Human Resources Officer. And by the way, if you've been listening to this podcast on a computer and you'd rather catch it on your phone or other mobile device, you can go to wellspan.org/inspiringhealth. I'm Michael Carrese. Thanks for listening and hope you can join us next time.