Health Is Wealth

Health is wealth. This is the Elevate Polk Podcast, and I'm your host Chrissanne Long. And with me as always, and still from a social distance, is Rob Arturi. We have a special episode this week. We're going to hear from two experts from Lakeland Regional Health, Dr. Timothy Regan, Lakeland Regional Health's Chief Medical Officer, is here to discuss the importance of maintaining your overall health despite COVID-19 concerns. And Patrick Phillips, Lakeland Regional Health Senior Vice President of Business Development and Chief Strategy Officer, is here to provide some great information on how individuals and business owners can protect themselves and others as things start to open back up. And Dr. Regan, if you can kind of give us a preliminary introduction of yourself, how long you've been here in the Lakeland and the Polk County area and how long you've been with Lakeland Regional Health.

Sure, I have been in Florida since 2003, and I actually moved into Lakeland in 2005. I started my career here as an emergency physician, and over the years I've picked up administrative roles within the medical center itself. Finally, in 2016, I was promoted to president of the medical center and chief medical officer of the health system.

Wow, that's a pretty impressive resume you've got there.

Thank you. I do continue to work in the emergency department. I think it's important to stay active clinically, but, you know, I do enjoy the aspects of helping to care for the community from an administrative standpoint as well.

Well, we appreciate that. We are very grateful to all of you who do such great things for us to keep us healthy.

Let me start, basically, we've been hearing about COVID for months now, right? I mean, I think we're at the months, plural. And one of the things that we hear about, or we don't hear enough about, is the other consequences of this whole process, whether it be the extra burden on the healthcare system, the quarantining, and all of these things there's a consequence beyond just the virus itself. And one of those things has been in the, in the effort to free up resources. And because I think the biggest concern from the start was our healthcare system becoming overrun and collapsing, which I think is what we started to see in Italy. That was the big fear. As a result, the government basically put the kibosh on preventative procedures and, and elective surgeries and, and all that stuff and really kind of told people that they shouldn't go to the doctor unless they really need to. And unfortunately, there's a consequence to that. Uh, Dr. Regan, from, from your perspective, can you give our audience kind of an, an, uh, better understanding of one of the problems associated with that?

Well, as an emergency physician, you know, I've been firsthand witness to seeing the consequences of prolonging life-threatening illness or disease process or prolonging chronic disease treatment for an extended period of time. And between myself and my colleagues in the emergency department, we have several sad stories that out of just an absolute fear of being seen in a medical center or by the physician's office that people have prolonged or ignored medical conditions that they have, and it has led to often lifelong health issues and even death. And those are the saddest where we have deaths and ailments that were completely preventable days ago, weeks ago that went untreated, and there's forever consequences to that.

Is that things like heart attacks and strokes and that sort of thing?

Sure. You know, people who have waited at home with chest pain assuming it would go away, people who wake up one day and they can't use their leg or they can't use their arm, and they, out of just an absolute fear of coming to the emergency department, have delayed getting evaluation and delayed treatment. And this has, you know, led to people who could have had a heart attack reversed by our cardiologists, who could have had, you know, clot-busting medications and procedures to reverse stroke symptoms, people who could have had operations to avoid what turns out to be a bad infection either in their stomach and would lead to blood infections or sepsis that a lot of people are now aware of. So it's been very sad to, to watch, uh, the, the fear that this virus has instilled in people, uh, and they, you know, in their unwillingness to seek medical treatment. And we have really gone to great lengths to make sure that patients are safe when they come here regardless of their medical needs. What we are blessed with here in Lakeland is, you know, the size of our facility has allowed us to truly separate patient populations into two. It's an 864-bed medical center, it's a 133-bed ER, and that gives us the ability to truly just separate patient populations based on why they are here. We can take patients who may be at risk for having the virus and put them in one area of the ER, one area of the hospital, a particular group of operating rooms, a particular group of cath labs. And, you know, and we can keep them separate and distinct from patients who aren't at risk within our medical center.

So basically what you're saying is the risks of not getting treatment for those things far outweighs the risk of potentially contracting COVID by virtue of going to the hospital if you have one of those conditions.

Absolutely. You know, and I even go far— as far as to remind your audience that 80% of people who get this virus have little to no symptoms at all. It's really less than 10% of, of people that contract the virus that need any type of medical attention, and it's just a small percentage of them, of those that need medical attention, that need hospitalization, and even smaller who go to the ICU. So It's easy to understand why people are afraid if you watch TV or you read the newspaper. That's all the news there is these days, and we get why, why people have angst regarding seeking medical care. But we're really trying to spread the word that, A, you know, getting infected with COVID may not be as bad as what you're sitting at home delaying treatment on, and B, you should absolutely seek medical treatment, and we have the ability to keep you safe and to keep you from being infected with this virus.

And I want to just point out that I don't recall, I never saw any overt recommendations at any point in time that emergency treatment should not be addressed or that you should stay home because, you know, you might come to a hospital and get sick. I don't think that that message was ever overtly shared, But it's just people with the overwhelming fear of what they're seeing on television, thinking that, that they go to the hospital, that's gonna get them sick. Is that what you're assuming as well?

Absolutely. I mean, it's easy to see the images from Italy and from New York and think that ERs are overrun with people who are in hallways and unable to breathe, and that's really just not the case here. We have been very lucky in Polk County and in Florida where the surge that we have had is not in any way comparable to the surge in Italy and to New York and to Washington State. You know, we've discussed at length among the medical staff here the effects of social distancing, the responsiveness of the public to, you know, the recommendations for wearing masks and to cleaning hands, And we think it's had a profound effect here in Lakeland and Polk County compared to the effect that it could have in a place like New York. We're pretty spread out population, and if people follow the rules, I think, um, I think that the people, the citizens have done themselves a service to really keep themselves healthy and safe.

I think Chrissanne Long's right. There was nobody ever said if you're having chest pains, don't go to the ER because of COVID But, and you, you brought up a great point that there's a, a lot of fear and, and a lot of that fear is because of the unknown, right? People always imagine the worst case scenario. So it's, uh, it's troubling to hear that some people would put off, uh, what I would consider signs of some acute illness or, or medical episode, right? I mean, like if you're saying I can't use one half of my body, and that's a very serious thing, the same with chest pains or, or that sort of thing. And even though, yes, we like to think that people would not be that obtuse as to just ignore those, we know there are some and they shouldn't do that. But let's talk about some of the more minor things, because I heard a statistic recently that cancer diagnoses have plummeted. My understanding is that people aren't going and getting their normal course of care. They're not going for annual checkups. They're not going for their routine exams where cancer is often detected. Those things aren't happening. So yes, people should have all along been getting that emergency treatment for those acute, urgent conditions. But let's talk about just the normal course of care that's being put off and the consequences there as well.

Sure. I mean, every aspect of the medical industry has seen drops in patient volumes. And, you know, this can have a long-term impact on what diagnosis patients have. Now, no one's looking for a diagnosis, but we tend to understand that we're supposed to see the doctor at least once a year and get a checkup. And, and what comes with that are, you know, subtle changes year over year or every few months where that a physician who's treating you can understand there are slight abnormalities in lab values which may be creeping up that to the unknowing eye wouldn't make much difference, but to somebody who has medical training understands, oh, you know, I should probably— I've seen this blood level change, I should probably get an X-ray, I should probably get a CAT scan. And then the patient goes to the X-ray or CAT scan, and that's where you find these diagnoses. But we, we've really seen that in primary care practices and specialty practices in the radiology centers across, you know, across the world basically, um, have seen dips in volumes. And it is not surprising that there has been dips in diagnosis because that's how, you know, that's really how you come to these conclusions.

If somebody is on one hand trying to follow the rules and sheltering and doing all of that to try and prevent getting COVID, but they're also delaying their— those normal appointments and things, um, is it quite possible that that might actually be doing more harm than if they were to even get COVID to begin with?

Well, I, you know, I think that it is a delicate dance. You know, um, there, there are people who have, you know, horrible outcomes from the COVID COVID, um, infection. Um, but, you know, I think that most people have heard the expression essential businesses. People understand that there are certain aspects to society that need to remain open and functional as normal as possible, uh, just to maintain the community and maintain society. And one of those is, you know, physician practices. But when people— but I also understand where people have taken the position where if there is not a need to leave the home, then they would avoid leaving the home, and that would include a routine medical visit. But You know, I think I would share the opinion with the medical community that this is a dangerous position to take because people need medical screening exams. People need to have— you know, diabetics need to have their blood sugars checked. People with high blood pressure have to have their blood pressure addressed. And that is why the government and, um, you know, the medical societies at large have deemed essential businesses to include physician offices, just like you need food from grocery stores and, and you need hospitals to take care of sick people. You know, physician offices are included in those essential businesses.

People understand that if they're sheltering at home, that they still need to go to the grocery store because they have to get food, and that's a calculated risk. And different people will address that risk differently. Some people are so, are so at risk, or, or they're so concerned, they have others go to the grocery store for them, and that's perfectly fine. But for many people, if they're willing to go to the grocery store because they need to get food, does it make sense that they should also consider going to their regularly scheduled, let's say, doctor's appointment or screening because that is also essential for their health as well, and they should, you know, not put that off if possible?

Yes, absolutely. That would be my advice. And the, the beauty of the age that we live in now is that there are, are ways to get medical exams without physically having to physically leave your home. There are tech-savvy people at every age distribution, and people know how to use smartphones and iPads and, um, you know, and have telemedicine visits with their providers. That can give, can give doctors a lot of information and can direct physicians, um, what the next step in care or evaluation would be for a patient. So I don't, you know, I, I understand why people are worried about leaving their home, but there are lots of different ways that people can get an evaluation. I also think that patients should absolutely, you know, be demanding of their— of any business that they frequent to provide means to protect them. And so social distancing in waiting rooms and masks should be the norm for areas where you may come into contact with sick individuals, and that includes physician offices. You know, at Lakeland Regional, in our medical center, we are large enough where we can absolutely divide populations. It may be more subtle in smaller physician practices, but, but it's absolutely, uh, it's something that can be accomplished. And I think people who go to the grocery store, who go to gas stations, um, understand that other businesses have made it easy to maintain social distancing and wear masks, and physician offices are no different. So for our health system, you know, we have telemedicine available for almost every specialty, and it has worked very well for people who have tried to take part in that. And those appointments can be made by calling, you know, we have our main phone number, which is 284-5000. If patients call that number, they would have a variety of means to be seen in whatever venue they would prefer.

I would assume that there are some differences in opinion, but within the, within the families. So I was actually having a conversation with a client today where the mother-in-law said, I'm just going to go to the doctor, and everyone in the family said no. And she just took herself to the doctor because she decided that she was going to do so. So in the event that there's sort of an argument, maybe that the husband says no and the wife says yes, or vice versa, or even an older mother or father, how, how is it possible for us to make sure that we're making the right decisions and also helping get folks who need someone to intervene on their behalf to say, yes, I actually do agree with you, you should let him or her go to the doctor. 'Cause I believe that's probably a lot of challenges that within the family, within family environments are taking place right now.

You know, it is, and people's health can be very personal and people can be surprisingly private when it comes to seeking medical care. The way we run our business, we have tried to be available in any particular way Um, but in terms of giving advice, it's funny. I mean, you know, my, my dad can be stubborn. My mom, uh, is a nurse and she can get on him about certain things, but when people are stubborn, it's hard to convince them. But what I can tell you is that the people who have been stubborn and have not had medical issues addressed have had very poor outcomes, uh, here in the last several months. And that has been evidenced in the sad stories that I highlighted when we first started talking. It's been people who have fallen and may have injured their hip and were stubbornly saying to their family, "No, I'm not going to the hospital." But a broken hip in an elderly person is a death sentence if it is not treated quickly. True. But I absolutely respect people wanting their own privacy and they want independence to make their own medical decisions. But in times like this, if you're listening to your body or you're listening to the news, I would err on listening to your body because if you delay something, it's a wonderful time where we have so many capabilities to take care of life-threatening and life-ending conditions just several years ago just to put off because of a fear of this virus when we when every medical— every member of the medical community has gone to great lengths to make sure that patients stay safe. Um, it, it, it's just such a shame what we're seeing.

So when did it become obvious to you that this was becoming a problem, or was it pretty immediate? It was just hard to get the message out from the onset.

Well, you know, it's interesting. The ER is the front line and the front door of the hospital, and so it's easy to understand when when news started hitting, we started to see a real trickle in the number of patients that were coming through the door. And most dramatically was pediatrics. And so, you know, the moms out there, out of an abundance of caution to make sure the babies are safe, would avoid the ER. So, you know, pediatric ERs across the world have seen about an 80% decline in ER visits. In Lakeland, our ER visits have dropped anywhere from 30 to 50% depending on the day, and we are a busy place, and we're a pretty efficient place. So, the ER was the first place where we really understood, hey, something's going on here. As, you know, as the executive orders came out and the shelter-in-place recommendations came out, it became a little bit more difficult to understand if that was people interpreting orders in a way that would cause them to avoid seeking care, but it's been a a profound, um, it's been a profound effect just over the last several weeks. Now, over the last week or so, as the governor has, um, you know, let the executive order expire and, uh, elective procedures have become allowable, uh, this has increased the number of people who are out in the community. And that's just me noticing anecdotally when I'm coming to and from work, there are more cars on the road. The, the ER has seen a little bit of an increase in, um, in visits, and elective procedures have increased dramatically because it was basically zero up until last Monday. But people are out again and they're seeking care. Now there's a fair portion of the population that still are probably staying at home and, and waiting it out, so to speak. And most patient— most populations in general, it's a bell-shaped curve, and there's going be some that signed up the first day that a surgery was available and some that are going to wait until the bitter end, until there's herd immunity or a vaccine. But, um, but we are seeing people reach out to their physicians. You know, it's trickling out right now. It's trickling out. And, and a lot of what we are providing for patients in the terms of, in terms of elective procedures, it's, it's been a a shift in how people are evaluated, and we're requiring testing on all patients, so that has created some logistical issues that we have been working through. The Medical Center has been able to provide testing for people, and we have now in-house testing, so we can have a, you know, less than a day turnaround for tests, but for a long time, testing was a big issue, and it's not so much for us now at Lakeland Regional, but I do know that within the community, it's still a week to get a test for COVID.

Well, to Chrissanne Long's point earlier about arguments within the family, if your wife says don't go and husband says I'm going, that carries with it its own series of potential health challenges.

Yeah, I'm not sure I can weigh in on how to fix that issue. My wife might be listening, so I'll just stay quiet, I guess.

It's probably a good idea. You're a smart man. In various ways.

But, you know, and it is a real concern. I think everyone has that family member. You said your father's the stubborn one, and I would probably be the stubborn one in my family. We all have those folks who are just like, no, no, no, I can wait. Or even just wanting to, to not put any additional burden on the system. You know, there's already so many things going on and I just don't want to be a burden. And so I just really wanted to make sure that, you know, families listening were able to understand that maybe it's a phone call just to have a healthcare professional speak to the person who's resistant to seeking medical care and assuring them and letting them know that they will be safe, or at least walking through a triage over the phone. Are those options available if that's something that someone needs?

Oh, absolutely. Go to our, you know, for people who are in Lakeland or Polk County, go to our website and, or call our phone numbers. We lots and lots of resources out there to try to convince people that we are open, we are safe. It's probably one of the safest places to be in town because of the amount of cleaning that we're doing, because, you know, we've— it's funny, I mean, it sounds silly, but it's important. We have mapped out our air handlers and we have followed our ductwork and we place patients in whatever population they fall into based on where the air handler is directing the air conditioning, and so, you know, we've taken this very, very seriously. We're trying to provide education for the community. Our website is chock-full of information, not only for families and individuals but for businesses as well that want to open their doors. We're really trying to be a good community partner and provide as much information and as much clarity and as much comfort for the people that we serve. And so, you know, please by all means reach out. You know, as an ER doc, the internet can be a blessing and a curse because of the information that is out there. But I would absolutely encourage people who have a medical condition that have an ache or a pain that has gone on for a time that is longer than what they're comfortable with, please look it up and understand that there are risks to waiting on things.

And that means that if you had a scheduled screening or checkup or regular appointment with a medical provider, to go ahead and pick up the phone right now, make that appointment again, and get back into taking care of your health. Because I know we all kind of paused. I mean, everybody took a breath and said, all right, I'm not going to do anything for a month or two. And now it's, you know, that's becoming potentially even more risky than having gone to that initial appointment. So, I think that's really what I'm hearing you say, Dr. Regan, is just, you know, make sure that you get back into the swing of your regular screenings and appointments and all of that stuff that you may have been postponing at this point.

Absolutely. Get on the phone, make an appointment. This is a partnership between us and our patients. And if the patients take precautions to protect themselves, will be safe here at any facility that we have or where patients will come into.

I think that's great advice, and I appreciate you highlighting that to our audience because I think that it's something people need to hear.

And I just want to iterate how grateful we are for your leadership and the leadership of your leadership team at the hospital. I know that there are— these are challenging times, and I know nobody volunteered to say, hey, I want to— I want to be the person in charge during a pandemic, during a crisis, but you all are really stepping forward and doing everything that you can, and I can see it, and I'm sure the community at large can see it, but I did want to take an opportunity to just say thank you for everything that you're doing for all of us.

Well, you know, we appreciate the acknowledgement, but we are here to serve the community as we always have been, so, and you know, if there's something more that we can be doing, or if there are people out there that need a different kind of advice than for business or at home, you know, please don't hesitate to reach out. We have lots of ways to get in contact with us.

So, I just want to say thank you for being our first representative from the Lakeland Regional Health Center on our show. We're very excited to create that partnership, and if there are any other messages you want to share with us in the future, please reach out.

Absolutely, we're happy to answer anyone's questions, and we're happy to give talks on issues that people are interested in.

Wonderful. Thank you.

Well, thank you all for doing what you're doing and spreading this message.

Thank you. All right. So now let's go ahead and move over and have a conversation with Patrick Phillips, the Chief Strategy Officer and Vice President of Business Development. Welcome to the show, Patrick.

Hey, great. Thanks. Thanks. Glad to be here. Excited to have a conversation with you all.

And specifically, why don't you give us, before we get started, give us a little bit of personal background. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Of how you found yourself in Lakeland, at Lakeland Regional Health. I think you're relatively new to the team, correct?

Yeah, that's right. You know, I was born in Florida way back, and we moved out of the state when I was 3, and I was fortunate enough to have a lot of good opportunities with healthcare and some good systems like UNC and Atrium Health and service line development, Tennant Healthcare, and just got connected with our incoming CEO, Danielle, and things worked out and got the opportunity to come down here in January and moved my family down, and we've been here for, for a couple months. A little bit different start than we, than we thought it was going to be with all these things happening, but glad to be part of the team. It's really a sharp team, and we've got a lot of good things going for us.

Yeah, I've gotten to know Danielle a little bit through some work we've done together on boards through the Chamber of Commerce, and, and she's sharp, and I'm excited to see how she's going to be able to take the lead on everything as things flow, but I'm sure that this is not the way she anticipated beginning that process.

No, no, definitely not, but you know, that's what we're here as a health system to be able to take on all these types of things and anything else that comes up, and you're absolutely right, she's usually the sharpest one in the room, but doesn't let you know it either, you know, she's She's thoughtful and listens to folks and collaborates and gets the best decision across the table to go forward with.

Well, we welcome you to the Lakeland community, and hopefully we have an opportunity to meet in person at some point in time. Rob, you put the show notes together. Do you want to kind of tee it up for us?

Yeah, so basically, we've got Patrick here to talk to us about what businesses and individuals can do. And Lakeland Regional also has some, some resources that they've put together. You know, in the healthcare industry, and especially being the largest hospital in the area, they had to take a lead on a lot of this stuff. And they've used a lot of that information to put together some, some tips and some strategies for businesses and individuals in order to keep everybody safe going forward.

You hit that right, and that We've put these resources together in an effort of helping our community reopen safely. And here at Lakeland Regional, we're the operators and the corporate offices too. And so all these things we had to develop on our own with our subject matter expertise. And now you look across the country, like we're probably now the subject matter expertise in COVID-19 and how to, operate in this new world. We've got Dr. Elaine Thompson and Dr. Haight, infectious disease. She's been phenomenal leading us through. She's our current CEO, and she's done a phenomenal job pulling these things together, and we've created these policies and procedures and operating guidelines from scratch, and so we want to make sure to share that out with the community. Going forward.

Yeah, and I want to give a shout out. So how all of us got together is through our connection with Jennifer Audette, who is the Director of Public Relations and Communications. And she's been fantastic as we've been going through this as far as communicating information over to us and getting information to share out to the network. And I think that's really how a large operation operates is making sure the players are communicating and then gathering the people to be able to to carry the ball across the finish line, or I guess that's a mixed metaphor there. Sorry about that. To carry the ball across the goal line. But I think what's really interesting to me is really how you've, I think early on in the conversations and some shows and discussions that we've had, it's almost like you're putting the plane together as you're taking off and not really having an answer to everything, but knowing we've got to put these things together. We've got to get this information to the community. And so I applaud you and your team and everyone who's been working together to make sure that the information is available. So thank you for being a part of that.

Well, you're spot on. It's funny, I've heard that same saying a couple of times. You know, we're putting together the airplane, you know, as we're going down the runway. And, you know, credit goes to Jennifer and Tim Boyd in that, you know, they've pulled together all this information into, you know, appropriate communication and documents to be able to share out with the organization. So, they're the talented ones pulling these things together. You're right.

So, we have learned about things that we can do such as the social distancing, standing 6 feet, wearing masks, and that sort of thing. From an advisory standpoint, what would you say are, I guess, where the main concern should be? Is it people touching things other people touched, or is it, being and breathing or coughing in proximity? What is the main concern? Obviously, you can't rule out any of these things that are still potential, but what should we mainly be concerned with?

I'd say, let's keep it simple. The 3 Ws, I think I've heard that used, wash, wear, and wait. Wash your hands regularly and often, and don't touch your face in between. Wear a mask. I think that's a great thing to be consistently doing out in the public, and wait a distance of 6 foot. There's a lot of the retailers now that have been supporting those things. I know as you come into any of our sites, ambulatory sites or the hospital, we have masks that we can hand out to folks. We also have kind of amped it up another level and we do temperature checks for folks that come into the organization. So I think those vary by, you know, the business entity. One thing, you know, to kind of summarize that and to help out is, you know, we've put a lot of those policies, procedures, and guidelines, you know, onto a website for folks to take a look, and they're welcome to to use as they feel the need to do so. And I think that'll help looking through that and seeing, you know, what types of things that we've developed, or, you know, keeping those 3 W's in mind that they could, you know, they could use with their own businesses.

And so I'm just going to go ahead and read the address, but we'll also put the link in the show notes. But the address for the business resources that Patrick is referring to live on mylrh.org www.polk.gov/business/resources, and there are a really good number of items there for policies and procedures for businesses to adopt and how to screen employees, protecting the employees, the cleaning processes, you know, how to use masks properly, hand hygiene, things like that. And so I think that's a great resource for us to point people to. And, you know, since we're a Polk County-wide podcast, we also address the fact that sometimes employees are looking for answers to help guide their employers. So if you're listening and you're not necessarily the boss man of your business, it's really helpful to just let your employer know these resources are available and the hospital is also available. Patrick, do you want to talk for a minute about the consulting support? I kind of thought that was an interesting piece at the bottom of the page. It talks about maybe bringing somebody from the hospital to a business to help guide and help businesses along the way?

Yeah, absolutely. You know, this thing is— we've made it malleable to adjust to the community. We've talked to city officials, we've talked to local college leaders, we've talked to businesses, the chamber, and we're continuing to adjust it to what's needed. We have, like we talked about, you know, Dr. Thompson that has helped pull these things together as our CEO. We have folks that have created the tracing protocol and processes, so when you do have an employee that has tested positive, well, how do you go back and trace and make sure that you've figured out how to safely take care of your employee population? We've got HR policies that were developed and guidelines created, our Chief Human Resource our Human Resources Officer, Scott Dimmock, has been into the weeds creating all those things. But you go down the list, we've got all sorts of resources that we can triage based on the needs of folks. You know, if they— you got a call number too. Folks can call in. It's 863-904-1859 and talk to about, you know, what their needs may be. And, you know, whatever that subject matter expertise that you need, we've probably got it. You know, we've got our COO Terry, knows more about proper protective equipment, you know, for protection more than he ever had imagined. And he's no doubt can give you guidance on, you know, what the right level mask to wear. We've, you know, as we set up testing for temperature checks, you know, we've gone through different types of methods and processes for getting the temperature check, we can talk to you about that. I mean, we've gone through it all, and we're happy to share that out so that others don't have to take as much time, effort, and energy creating the wheel, but can replicate sort of the best practices. That's the ultimate goal, really.

Excellent, thank you. I'm on the Lakeland, the Reopen Lakeland Task Force, so we had a meeting late last week, and one of the questions that a lot of the other members of the task force were asking, and I know Danielle and Dr. Aichinger had to get off the call a little earlier, so we'll probably have some follow-up conversations, but one of the things that a lot of businesses are asking are the tools. Like, you were mentioning, you know, how to properly take the temperature, you know, no touch and within 6 feet. How do you do that? And, you know, having the employee take it themselves, but what, you know, what equipment do we need as businesses to open up and where can we get those, or is the hospital also going to maybe facilitate assisting in that way? And then there may not be an answer to that at this point in time, but maybe that's a concern we can, we can discuss in the future.

You're hitting the nail on the head right there. Procuring, you know, let's just take masks for example. We're having to pay 5 times what we were paying or more for masks right now, and that's not sustainable. And so, you know, I was on a call with the Chamber, and they were talking about maybe we can have a consortium and pull together resources, or maybe we could get some, you know, some more developed or manufactured locally. I mean, I think we're in that brainstorming phase. Masks are one of the most important things for us to be wearing. It's one of those where You know, you're going to protect those around you, not so much as protect yourself, but if everybody's wearing a mask, we're all protecting each other. You know, I think it's, it's the thoughtful— yeah, I think that was back to Rob's original question a little bit ago. What's the best thing that we can do? And probably wearing a mask, but also it, you know, when you have businesses that are opening up and you create policies, right? So the policies are just one part of this. Now you've got to figure out how to manage it, and I'll just Take for example, you know, my family, we've had to go to North Carolina and back a couple times to take care of my mother, and along the way we've stopped at the same fast food chain. It's well known, there's lots of people working there, and we feel safe because everybody is wearing a mask, but as we came through the line, you know, the other evening, one of the One of the gentlemen working had the mask and he'd worn it so much and pulled it down because he'd been pulling it up to talk and pulling it back that it was like hanging down. And there was like, there was no point of him wearing it at that point. Like, so part of this is the policy development. Part of it too is making sure that you hardwire, you know, the operations. Just like you hardwire people saying, you know, "Have a good day," or "Thanks for visiting." Now you hardwire the proper, you know, protective equipment that you're going to be wearing. Um, you know, going forward, I think that's, that's going to be the standard.

Yeah, I've seen that too. I've been at big box stores where they have employees that are mandated to wear masks. They're wearing them like covering their mouth but not their nose. And, you know, I've heard different things. I've heard that the masks really prevent you from spreading it more than they prevent you from getting it, which doesn't necessarily— it doesn't mean that that's a reason not to wear one. Um, but I think proper wearing and handling of these things is, is important. I mean, if you're wearing a reusable mask, you have to wash the thing.

Yeah, I totally agree. So I would say to that, it's the equivalent of, right, when you're walking into a store and there's an elderly, elderly person behind you, right? What do you do? You stop, you open up the door, and you allow them to walk through. There's no law that requires you to do that. That's like common courtesy. and I think mask wearing is probably the same thing, right? So does it help out the people in the room more than it helps you out? You know, especially the ones that are homemade, probably a little bit. Is there some benefit for you? Absolutely, but I think overall, if we continue to, you know, if all are wearing and are encouraged to wear them, and you wear them the right way, like so you wash your hands before putting it on your face and covering your face, you put it over your nose and you put it over your mouth, Make sure that it fits snugly. You make sure that you can breathe, you know, easily so you don't suffocate yourself. I mean, these are the type of things, you know, and don't touch your face, you know, when you have it on. You know, you have to pull it down to talk and then put it back. You know, like those are probably some good standards to follow, and to keep in mind too that, you know, face covering doesn't necessarily substitute for social distancing. Just because you have your mask on, you know, doesn't mean you can have a bunch of people in the room, you know, more than 10 people. Like, you still got to be keeping your social distance as well.

You know, one of the issues I think that I've been talking about more so than what we should do for— from a health standpoint or even a governmental edict is what can we do to make people feel more comfortable about going back to these places? So if from, from where you're sitting, because you have this experience, uh, and that, that institutional knowledge with these practices, what would you recommend that businesses do? And if you're from the other side, let's say you're a consumer and you're seeing these things, um, that a business could do that would make you feel more comfortable about shopping there, dining there, any, any of those things?

I, you know, I would want to know as a consumer, I want to say, hey, have those practices been validated through a subject matter expert, first off? And then, you know, if I was a business, I'd, I'd say, you know, I would encourage them to look at our checklist. And so we've developed a checklist and You know, on the website, if you look under the Return to Work Activity Recommendations, there's a checklist. Lauren Springfield, that's working with me on this, helped put it together. It's great. It's simple. But you can go through that list and making sure that you've got the right things set up. Review your staffing and social distancing, with social distancing in mind. Develop processes to protect employees and accommodate social distancing. Develop daily interaction guidelines, prepare a plan for communication for employees and community members, and design staff training on safety procedures, and then validate that through us. You know, we've got, like I said, we've got infectious disease physicians on staff, we've got subject matter experts that we've talked about before on this that can help validate those. And so, you know, if I'm a business, I'd be going to that checklist, and then I'd use us as a resource to validate. We've had some companies do that already, and they've been like, good, you know, we're going to say we've talked to the local hospital and we've aligned with what they're doing. And we're like, absolutely, that's great. And then, you know, if I'm a consumer, I'm going to want to make sure that what they're practicing, just because they say you know, this is what we're doing and this is why we think it's safe. It's like, well, that's great, but what does the expert say, you know? And so we're here to help out with that. Hopefully that's, uh, that, that will, that will get us headed in the right direction.

Sure, I think so. Let's, let's, let's play devil's advocate for a minute and let's talk a little bit about those that might not be adopting or wanting to adhere to some of these recommendations. And even if they're business owners, I know that in a conversation, especially specifically, um, with the Reopen Lakeland Task Force, employees that might say, you know what, I don't want to wear a mask, and obviously, you know, the owner of the company has the ability to say, okay, well then you don't have a job here. But at the same time, there's some of that disparate, you know, mindset, and from a business perspective, what are your recommendations as far as how a business can convey that they are adhering? I think that's one of the marketing campaigns that we're trying to discuss is like, we are a mask-friendly business, or I wear a mask I wear a mask for our customers, but at the same time, we also need to recognize that I believe that there isn't a 100% buy-in to this process.

Yeah, it's unfortunate that, you know, you are going to have some folks that just don't believe the mask is of any use or that there's, you know, these things, protection is not helping. You know, I think at that point, for those businesses, you have to understand the situation and the environment and, you know, and then bring in, you know, resources to help you think through what, you know, what you should do. Obviously, you know, if you're a consumer, yeah, you use the same— I use the rule, the two-foot rule that I use in meetings, that, you know, if, hey, I'm not— this is not the, you know, a meeting that I should be a part of, to use your two feet and go get something else done. You know, it's like, if you're in an environment that you don't feel safe, Use your two feet and go somewhere else. Like, you do not, you should not stay around, and that business should not tolerate that, and they should figure out how to get back to safe levels, or else I'd suspect they may not be around for a long time, for the long run. But again, that's why we have, that's a great example, me not knowing all the details what a business could do, that's going to happen. And, you know, we can talk through what we've done and give some guidance, you know, from our— from the HR perspective.

Yeah, I think that's going to be important. I think also what the legal ramifications are for the business laying someone off during this time and how that's going to play out. I don't know the answers. I'm just— I'm just thinking about, you know, there are some very strict guidelines for, you know, protecting the employee. And how are we, how are we going to make sure that everyone's adhering to the correct guidelines, but then also the risk is minimal, you know, for them as well?

Yeah, and the tough part is that, you know, CDC guidelines continue to evolve. Where they are now, they may evolve again. And so the mask recommendations and guidelines changed, you know, the last couple months. And so just staying up to date on those type of things, I think will help businesses be successful.

Let's talk about that real quick too, about the changes in the masks, because I know that there, that was another discussion that we've had this past week is, is a cloth mask, is that truly protecting the individual? Is it protecting those around them? What are the reasons why a cloth mask is okay, but it has not been or was not at the initial stages of all of the guidelines being in the recommendations? What was the reason for the shift and what have we learned, or why is a cloth mask okay when we thought that it wasn't?

You know, I, again, not being clinical, I can't weigh in on the technical side, and the CDC has, they've got, you know, tons of research that's happening around masks and what's proper and what's not, and I think at the end of the day, they've weighed in that wearing a cloth mask is better than not wearing a mask at all, and so, you know, it'd be tough for me to to really weigh in too much on some of that technical side. Okay. Just, but I mean, the overall still stands in that, you know, you're helping out, you're doing kind of the right thing to those that you're around by wearing that mask and keeping your germs to yourself. And if everybody were to wear a mask and keep, you know, kind of their germs to themselves, You know, there's a strong chance of really, really reducing, uh, spread.

I think for— it's my understanding, again, I'm not a clinician either, but it's my understanding that the virus is transmitted by droplets. It's not necessarily just floating in the air. If it was, the virus is so small that in reality it would go right through most of these masks, especially these fabric masks. But the idea is that because it's in droplets, whether they are droplets coming out of your mouth or potentially somebody coughs and there's just a cloud of, you know, mist and you happen to walk right through it, even a fabric mask could potentially catch some of those droplets and therefore keep that virus on the mask itself versus going directly into your body. It is far from perfect. I don't know that you know, what is perfect. But it's my understanding that's how— that's why even wearing a fabric mask is, is somewhat beneficial, especially from the droplets going out, because it will stop that— you from expelling that.

Mm-hmm.

So again, I won't ask you to verify from, from the hospital standpoint that what I just said was correct. And please, if you're listening to this, feel free to fact-check me. That's just my understanding from reading the literature on it.

That.

But again, I guess it can't hurt. I do know there are some people who were wearing masks inappropriately or whatever they were doing, and they had issues breathing. So, you know, whatever we were wearing, you know, know how to wear it and wear it properly and wear it safely, obviously. But there certainly is evidence to say that it, it would, uh, it would be helpful.

Yeah, Rob, I think, I think you said that very well.

He always says everything really well. He's Oh, this episode is very articulate.

This episode is doing great things for my ego. I appreciate both of you very, very much.

See, I'm the one that always says, "By golly," and everyone laughs at me. So he's the smart, articulate one, and I'm the— I don't know what— What would you consider me, Rob?

Oh, stop now.

She's more endearing than I am. That's the difference.

I'm the hugger. I'm the hugger. He's the social distance. This is really killing me. You know, every time I see people, you know, passing them and seeing waving, I'm like, I can't wait to hug you. So, hopefully we'll get to that point soon.

Yeah, high fives, handshakes, you don't see those that often anymore. It's a little tough.

It is, it is. Well, wrapping up, I just, I appreciate your time today and we appreciate all of the work that all of your entire staff and team and all of our frontline nurses and healthcare practitioners are doing to keep us safe and to help keep us informed, and you've been, you know, really fun to get to know you on this short segment, but we appreciate everything that you are doing.

Well, we certainly appreciate it. I appreciate the kind words. This is a talented group. There's some frontline folks that are just absolute heroes, you know, across the board we have, and we're trying hard to make sure they recognize and know that. This is Hospital Week this week, and so we're doing some celebrations to make sure that folks are reminded of that, and we try to continue to do that, you know, in addition to try to share this knowledge about, you know, to the— as a business resource, you know. It's important to keep morale up to our frontline that is dealing with this day in and day out.

Absolutely. Well, what would be the best way for a business or a person listening to the show to reach out and maybe take advantage of the opportunities and the information that you have to provide us as a community? What would you like to tell people to do if they have an interest in connecting?

Specifically for ATAC and support donations, or are you talking more still the business resources? Sorry. I'm not sure I was answering the question.

Either or. I'm actually looking at the consulting support contact info, so I'll read that off. But if people do want to make contributions, why don't you go ahead and tell us what can the community do at this time? Is there anything specific that the business community can do, any contributions that you're needing at this moment?

Yeah, absolutely. Our foundation has set up— you can go right to our website and there's a link directly to the foundation from our homepage, and they're accepting COVID-19 donations, you know, from the community. We are so appreciative. Folks have been overwhelmingly supportive of, you know, us and have been reaching out to the foundation to do that.

Fantastic. And then just for anyone who does have questions or wants to get some information about the consulting side of what we talked about, The email to email is COVIDSafe@mylrh.org or a phone number 863-904-1859 to inquire about consulting services.

And I'll just add too that if there's just, you know, questions and a lot of this stuff we put out there, policies and procedures, for free to the local businesses and to the community and So, you know, consulting, if it's needed, we're certainly here to talk through things with you and help support you. We're not— this is not set up to be a moneymaker by any means. You know, it's more meant to get the subject-specific information, subject matter expertise out there so that people can copy and replicate rather than have to Create.

Awesome.

Fantastic. All right.

So thank y'all. This has been great.

Thank you very much for being here.

Thank you. We appreciate it.

We appreciate you and all you're doing. Thanks for listening. And remember, we have a new episode each week, so be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. And remember to leave us a review. We promise to read every one. You can always find all of our episodes at elevatepolk.com. And if there's something you want to hear about on an upcoming episode, reach out to us on Facebook at Elevate Polk.