New Haven health system reveals strategy for protecting workforce

Writing in Modern Healthcare, leaders at Yale New Haven (Conn.) Health argued “protecting staff from harm as a first principle” is essential as health systems battle the COVID-19 pandemic. “If we fail to protect our teams, we fail to treat our community,” AONL member and Yale New Haven Health Chief Nursing Executive Beth Beckman and her coauthors wrote. The hospital leaders outlined the six-pronged strategy they put in place earlier this year: optimizing external and internal communications; applying social distancing policies; optimizing testing strategies; enhancing stewardship of personal protective equipment; creating scalable and redundant teams; and focusing on the physical and mental well-being of staff members. “Protecting our staff requires institutional preparedness with structures that allow the rapid evolution of policy and procedure,” they wrote. (Modern Healthcare editorial, 4/7/20)