First few Article Sentences
The Covid-19 pandemic has created a barrier to health care at a magnitude the likes of which our industry has never seen. Many patients are terrified to receive care in traditional health care settings. There are abundant anecdotal accounts of patients suffering from heart attacks, strokes and other severe illnesses due to fear of contracting Covid-19. This fear is exacerbated by the Covid-19 “infodemic,” defined by the World Health Organization as “an over-abundance of information – some accurate and some not – that make it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it.” A Morning Consult poll revealed that a majority of voters said, “businesses and public spaces across the nation are opening too quickly.” Economists say the way out of the recessions depends on the level of consumer fear.3 Ensuring patients can expect they are safe to receive care in traditional health care facilities will be almost as challenging as our nation’s response to the devastation, death and illness coronavirus reaped on our world.
These negative emotions go deeper and affect more of our population than we have seen in recent memory. They create a barrier to stabilizing patient care. Health care providers and organizations need to pivot from virtual shutdown to reopen and provide vital care to patients. To accomplish this, providers need to create and communicate that their “brick and mortar” settings are safe. Our health care heroes have gone above and beyond through this crisis. To make people feel safe to come back into our facilities, we will need to continue to go above and beyond. It is mission-critical that we make patients, their families, and their caregivers feel safe.