July 21, 2020
Hi Team –
The wait is over! Baseball returns to Cincinnati this week with the 2020 Reds home opener on Friday, July 24 against the Detroit Tigers. Underscoring just how unusual these times are, “Spring” Training began on July 1 – just three weeks before this week’s home opener, which is now taking place in the middle of summer!! Just like TriHealth and other health systems, baseball will be opening with lots of safety precautions and will be different in many ways in order to co-exist with COVID-19, while also getting back to business – or in this case, “back to baseball”!! One added precaution for baseball will be no fans in the stadium for at least the first part of the reduced 60-game season. So while we won’t be able to cheer on our Reds in the Great American Ball Park just yet, we can show our pride and excitement for the start of their season by wearing Reds gear to work on Friday – and then catching the game on TV! What a great way to celebrate summer and the return to some level of normalcy!
New COVID-19 testing protocol and locations. As we settle into this next prolonged phase of co-existing with COVID-19 – while continuing our work to Get Healthcare Right – we will be moving our temporary outdoor testing sites (tents) to permanent and expanded indoor locations. Permanent testing sites will be located at our main hospital campuses, within our TriHealth Clinics at Walgreens, at our PCP and lab draw sites, and within our TriHealth Priority Care centers. This will allow us to make COVID-19 testing an integrated and sustained part of our new normal. It will also help us improve access and better manage testing volume, which we expect will continue to increase as we head into the flu season and as testing resources become more plentiful. Because national availability of test kits remains in short supply today, our CDC-recommended criteria for testing continues. As a reminder, this means a patient must have a physician order and/or be symptomatic in order to be tested – with the exception of pre-op patients and potentially exposed team members. Asymptomatic team members who wish to be tested should continue to work with Employee Health. Since testing is such an essential tool in reducing spread and enabling us to “co-exist” with COVID-19, it’s important that all team members understand our COVID-19 testing protocol, which is outlined in detail on the home page of TriHealth.com.
Masks remain essential to stop the spread of COVID-19. Last week, Governor DeWine made an impassioned plea for all Ohioans to wear a mask in public (click here to view speech). And while it’s too early to know with certainty that there is a direct cause and effect relationship, since the mandatory facial covering policy was enacted in early July by Cincinnati City Council, we’ve begun to see an encouraging decline in cases throughout Hamilton County – and the “R-factor” (the number of new infections generated by a single confirmed case) has dropped to below 1! The R-factor has also now started to drop in surrounding counties where troubling spikes in cases were also occurring. Here at TriHealth, we’ve been adopting and modeling the best practice of mask wearing all along – in addition to other mitigation measures, including hand hygiene, social distancing, and screening. Additionally, in response to the latest guidance from the CDC, we’ll soon be adopting and standardizing mandatory protective eyewear protocols for frontline patient caregivers – stay tuned for more details. Please continue to always wear masks in common areas, especially where social distancing is not optimal, including during lunch hours and break times. While masks can be removed when eating, it’s important to remember to stay six feet apart while sitting with others. Click here to learn more about TriHealth’s mask policy, and thank you for doing your part!
COVID-19 Financial Recovery Plan. In May, as it became clear we would need to reduce our costs to adapt to the new COVID-19 normal of reduced patient care volumes and revenue, we made a commitment to communicate openly and transparently with you during every step of our COVID-19 Financial Recovery Plan process – from helping you understand why the plan was needed to sharing details of our implementation progress. We have now achieved nearly $98M of the $130M operating cost reductions needed to return TriHealth to financial health and stability. And we are on-track to achieve our target in the coming months as we continue to implement all of the plan elements, including leadership consolidation, program and real estate changes, and sadly, position eliminations. On the bright side, we have already helped 58 impacted team members find new opportunities within TriHealth – representing about 40% of those interested in remaining with TriHealth! And literally every day, additional impacted team members are finding new roles within our system. To help you stay up-to-date on our COVID-19 Financial Recovery Plan efforts and progress, we’re developing a dedicated page on Bridge, which will be available later this week.
Next Town Hall scheduled for Tuesday, July 28 at noon. Mark your calendar and be sure to participate in our upcoming Team Member/Physician Town Hall, which will be livestreamed on Facebook and Bridge on Tuesday, July 28 at 12 pm.
TriHealth celebrates two exciting new wins! As we return our attention to the transformational work of Getting Healthcare Right, I’m thrilled to share two recent wins that reinforce we are indeed making encouraging progress in our journey to deliver care, better health, and better value, while fostering greater team member and physician engagement. This month, we learned that Bethesda North Hospital was named one of the World’s Best Hospitals by Newsweek for the second year in a row – joining an elite list of leading hospitals from 21 countries!! Additionally, our emergency departments at both Good Samaritan Western Ridge and Bethesda Arrow Springs were awarded the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) annual Lantern Award!! This prestigious national award recognizes emergency departments that excel across core areas including leadership, practice, education, advocacy, and research! This is the first time Western Ridge received the honor and the third time for Arrow Springs!
Congratulations to all of our team members, leaders, and physicians who made these extraordinary achievements possible – especially during these unprecedented times! And thank you to our entire TriHealth Team for all you do, every day, to make TriHealth Great!
New Tuition Assistance Program Launched
TriHealth’s new tuition assistance program through Bright Horizons EdAssist Solutions launched last week. Visit HR Central (HR Central > Career Development > Educational Assistance > EdAssist Educational Assistance) to find out more about the tuition assistance program available through EdAssist Solutions, review the eligible fields of study, and partner schools, and enroll in the tuition assistance program.
Always Safety Behaviors
To help team members remember to wear masks at all times, the SOAR Council has developed four new Always Behaviors and a Mask Guideline graphic. Visit the “Safety Signage” section here on Bridge to download and print these graphics for use in your practice or department. And click here to see some photos of the SOAR team visiting the Thomas Center to ensure we are all “safe and ready” for our patients.
I feel that TriHealth is moving in the right direction and I am proud to be a part of this great team !
Posted by: Jennifer Kokernak on July 22, 2020
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