What does the end of the public health emergency mean?
While the lethality of COVID-19 is still quite real, we cannot remain in a state of emergency indefinitely. Since the public health emergency was first declared, we have seen increased immunity due to vaccinations and recovery from infection, greater adoption of preventive measures, new and effective therapies, and the dominant strains of the virus have evolved to be less deadly.?
As a result, and despite the fact that daily COVID deaths are still greater than 225, health departments around the United States are ending their emergency declarations and news media are reducing the detail and frequency of reporting COVID-19 data. The San Francisco Department of Public Health announced that the City’s COVID-19 public health emergency declaration, along with additional health orders, ended on February 28 in alignment with the end of California’s COVID-19 State of Emergency. Other health departments affecting your patients are likely to be issuing similar changes.?
This is welcome news, but it isn't time to let our guard down yet. It appears that the peak of this year's respiratory illness is behind us, and even though we do not have an end to a pandemic, we've modified our behaviors and are living in a new normal.?
As health professionals, our new normal needs to include vigilance to protect our patients and ourselves. Here are some measures we can take:
1. Use a secure remote healthcare platform (such as HealthTap!)
Telehealth providers should use secure platforms for video conferencing and electronic health records to protect patient privacy and confidentiality.
2. Continue to encourage vaccination
Physicians should encourage their patients to get vaccinated against COVID-19, and to follow recommendations for boosters. Vaccines remain the most effective way to reduce the risk of severe illness, hospitalization and death.
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3. Screen patients for COVID-19
Two hundred-plus deaths a day is still far too many. We should continue to screen for COVID-19 symptoms to identify COVID-19 illness and begin early treatment for those at risk of more severe illness.
4. Encourage continued risk avoidance
Providers should encourage patients to practice responsible health behaviors, including masking up if they have any respiratory symptoms. Patients at increased risk of more severe illness should continue modify their activities to minimize their risk of exposure: Wear a mask when indoors, especially in congested areas or when meeting with other people who may not be vaccinated.??
By taking these precautions, we can protect ourselves and our patients from COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses.?
Sources:
Owner and President @ J P Systems, Inc. | Federal Health Informatics
1 年Have not heard of Healthtap before.
If there is a solution based upon the imperatives of integrated care leading with mental health but without the resources or just tasting our tails handing out Narcan that does little in the end except for long inevitable without a complete intervention too bad the money spent on prisons is not spent on the opioid crisis I've been an observer of Public Health policy for year it seems to be misdirected and misguided based upon the interests of the industrial medical complex and big medicine perhaps we need to take a look at how other societies are organized and start from the beginning obviously our current Solutions Are inadequate
Ending the Public Health crisis seems to be a bit of a misnomer we've done nothing substantial to address Mental Health gun violence rages and we're losing the battle on addiction manifested by people living in the street it looks like something from the third world God save us from ourselves