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Physicians Endoscopy participates in the New York readiness efforts during COVID-19
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ike other large-scale public health emergencies, the COVID-19 outbreak almost immediately resulted in an overwhelming demand for healthcare resources, such as medical staff, personal protective equipment, and care centers. The demand surge threatened to wipe out medical supply stockpiles, stretch hospitals beyond capacity, and leave healthcare workers exhausted and vulnerable to infection. Resource allocation and willingness to share are the only ways to ensure that healthcare workers have the resources they need to outlast the virus. Resource allocation plays an important role in mitigating demand surge; protecting healthcare workers; and controlling the spread of coronavirus by providing access to the healthcare professionals, tools, testing, medicines, and facilities necessary to provide advanced care to very large numbers of very sick people. Allocating large numbers of these resources swiftly and efficiently can help mitigate the resulting demand surge. Allocating resources effectively can prevent millions of infections and save tens of thousands of lives. Resource allocation also ensures that other essential health services, such as cancer care, have the resources they need to continue operating during a public health emergency.
6 PE GI Journal June 2020
Teresa Chaisson RN, BSN, CNOR, is the Director of Clinical Support at Physicians Endoscopy (PE). She can be reached at tchaisson@ endocenters.com.
To work well, though, resource allocation requires out-of-the-box thinking and willingness to share. To slow the torrent of new Andrew Castaldi, CPA, COVID-19 cases in New MBA, is the York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo Vice President issued a number of executive of Operations orders that allowed medical for the New professionals and practices York and New Jersey Market to provide care and medical at Physicians Endoscopy (PE). services/supplies in new and He can be reached at acastaldi@ innovative ways. The orders endocenters.com. allowed doctors and nurses from other states or Canada to practice in New York without fear of penalties related to licensure, for example, and relaxed some of the rules about moving medical supplies and drugs to alleviate temporary shortages. At about the same time, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced its “CMS Hospitals without Walls� initiative that allows hospitals to provide hospital services in other healthcare facilities and locations not typically used to provide patient care. This policy makes it
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