Penn State Health CEO Steve Massini and Dr. Kevin Black, interim dean of Penn State College of Medicine, sent the following email to staff, faculty and students across the health system and College on Thursday:
Dear Colleagues,
It appears that our regions as a whole are through the worst of the initial COVID-19 pandemic, and plans are well underway across Penn State Health and Penn State College of Medicine to resume clinical, research and education activities that were slowed or stopped.
Surgeries that were postponed are starting to take place. Patients are being rescheduled for missed outpatient visits. Next week, investigators will begin to return to their labs and fourth-year medical students will resume clinical rotations. But make no mistake: our reemergence from COVID-19 will be thoughtful and gradual. It could be months until departments and locations across our health system and college are back in full swing. Even then, some of our work environments, policies and procedures will be different, as the effects of the pandemic will linger and we all must adjust.
Our highest priority is safety – safety for our patients, our learners and our workforce.
It’s important to understand that for the foreseeable future, we will continue to care for COVID-19 patients and some supply challenges. That means we will still need to be vigilant in our efforts to prevent the spread of the virus and we still need to monitor and conserve PPE. At present our stock of most critical supplies is sufficient. We will continue to expand our ability and speed to test for the virus and antibodies, to perform contact tracing and to monitor for disease prevalence.
One-third of our employees have been working from home – and doing it quite well. Many of you will continue to do that throughout the summer. For those who return to the workplace, your shifts may be staggered or your work environment changed to ensure social distancing. The expanded telehealth capabilities we quickly made reality to make care safer and more convenient for patients during the pandemic are here to stay.
Some of our patients and our clinical and non-clinical staff have told us they are nervous about returning to the workplace. Many patients have delayed needed care because of that fear. Going forward, we will need to be intentional in our efforts to reassure our community, patients, staff and students that safety is our top concern.
We also are going to need to take extra time to teach and mentor learners who are returning to a very different environment. Last week, the first of our next class of incoming students – 30 physician assistant students – began their studies virtually instead of having the opportunity to come together on the Hershey campus to meet each other and our faculty.
Click here to find a document that outlines some of our early recovery plans for surgical care, outpatient care, research, education and workforce across the health system and college. It includes information on what we are doing now, what’s coming next and what we don’t yet know and will have to determine as we move forward. Our organization spans nine counties, and different locations are taking different approaches based on their individual needs. Please take a look and if you have questions or suggestions, reach out to your manager or reply to this email.
If you want to learn more about our recovery plans, we have two town halls coming up. The next Penn State Health town hall is noon, Tuesday, June 2, and here’s the link to participate. The next Penn State College of Medicine town hall is 4 p.m., Monday, June 15. You can watch a replay of the May 26 College of Medicine town hall here.
We’ve done amazing work together the past two months. Amid uncertainty and often with miles between us, we’ve shown our community what compassion, kindness, innovation, resilience and teamwork look like. They’ve lauded us as heroes for it. As we start to come back together, let’s continue to care for each patient, each learner and each other with that same spirit. We are successful only when we do this together.
Thank you.