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The aftereffects of the public health crisis caused byCOVID-19 will likely be felt for years to come. Apartfrom the loss of life and damage to the economy,

Gerald C. Wydro, M.D., foresees an unfortunate side ef-fect. He describes it as “a second pandemic,” referringto the implications of people who choose to forgo nec-essary medical care—even in an emergency—out offear of contracting the virus.

If Dr. Wydro can offer one piece of advice, it’s this:

Respect COVID-19, but do not fear it.“If we’re respecting the virus, we’re acknowledg-

ing that it’s a highly infectious disease and taking pre-cautions to fight it,” says Dr. Wydro, chairman of thedepartment of emergency medicine for JeffersonHealth – Northeast. “Fear of COVID-19 may makepeople not want to seek the care they need. I alwaystell people that if you are having chest pain, a stroke,or any other serious medical condition, come in and

D PROFILE

FIRST

by Bill Donahue | photography by Robert Neroni

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, Jefferson Health has evolved tooffer stringent protections for Northeast Philadelphia and BucksCounty community members in need of treatment for serious medical conditions.

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SAFETY

The Jefferson Torresdale HospitalEmergency Department andTrauma Center. Jefferson Healthalso offers emergency services at its Frankford and Bucks Countyhospitals.

JeffersonTorresdaleHospital

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get the care you need.”Given the frightening news headlines and

evolving or contradictory information sharedabout the virus over the past few months, Dr.Wydro can understand people’s hesitancy. Evenso, he suggests people should feel assured thatJefferson Health has done everything in itspower to provide care in the safest possible en-vironment.

“Do not feel afraid to seek the care that mightsave your life,” he adds. “Our emergency depart-ments are here and ready.”

Taking Every PrecautionJefferson Health – Northeast comprises threestate-of-the-art locations: Jefferson Bucks Hospi-tal in Langhorne, and Jefferson Frankford Hos-pital and Jefferson Torresdale Hospital inNortheast Philadelphia. The emergency depart-ment of each hospital provides expert carestaffed by teams of specialty trained emergencymedicine physicians and nurses.

Each state-of-the-art emergency departmentremains open to patients 24 hours a day, 365days a year, offering advanced care for stroke,heart attack, and various other serious medicalconditions. Jefferson Torresdale Hospital is alsoa Level II Trauma Center. In order to do so safely,all of Jefferson’s emergency departments haveadopted stringent safety measures to protect pa-tients and staff alike. These protocols include:

• PATIENT SCREENING. Every patient andevery visitor who enters the emergency depart-ment is screened for the virus. Those considered“high risk,” meaning they are symptomatic or inrespiratory distress, are treated in doored roomsby practitioners with enhanced personal protec-tive equipment. In addition, high-risk patients arenot permitted visitors within the hospital as a wayto lessen the likelihood of community spread.(Editor’s note: Jefferson also hosts mobile, out-patient testing sites for COVID-19 at locations inCenter City, Abington, Northeast Philadelphia,and New Jersey, where patients can schedule atest with a formal request from their physician.)

• UNIVERSAL MASKING. Every patient-fac-ing staff member, whether “at the front desk oron the front lines,” wears a full face shield. In ad-dition, every incoming patient, as well as everyvisitor, receives a facemask to wear for the dura-tion of their stay. Dr. Wydro credits Jefferson for“going above and beyond” to source PPE—face-masks, gowns, gloves, etc.—at the enterpriselevel so that inventory is not an issue.

• SOCIAL DISTANCING. Jefferson Health –Northeast has updated its visitation policy to ac-commodate one visitor per patient, assuming thepatient and visitor have both been deemed “lowrisk” based on screening. Also, waiting areashave been converted to spaces where social dis-tancing is applied, with seating spaced out sixfeet apart in accordance with recommendationsfrom the U.S. Centers for Disease Control andPrevention.

• HYGIENE AND CLEANING.Hand-sanitiz-ing stations abound, and staff are encouraged towash their hands for 20 seconds. In addition,treatment rooms are cleaned extensively to pro-tect staff and reduce the risk of patient-to-patientinfection.

• TELEMEDICINE. Telemedicine has proventremendously useful for all healthcare providers,and the benefits extend to Jefferson’s emergencydepartments, too. While Jefferson has long useda mobile teleconsulting system to communicatewith patients, the health system’s emergency de-partment has identified new opportunities to uti-lize telemedicine in light of the pandemic.

“After we make an initial assessment, we’reable to give the patient an iPad so the patient andphysician can do additional follow-ups usingtelemedicine,” Dr. Wydro says. “This also re-duces the amount of PPE we have to use, bothfor the physician and the patient. COVID-19 hasprompted us to bring telemedicine onto the frontline, and I never see it going away.”

Focused on ‘What’s Next’Meeting a community’s health needs in themidst of an unprecedented health crisis has notbeen a simple task. Dr. Wydro credits the inge-nuity of Jefferson’s leadership and staff for thehealth system’s coordinated response across alldepartments and campuses. Implementation ofthe Hospital Incident Command System allowed

for a scalable structure to manage the event.Communication was enhanced through the useof a dedicated emergency operations commandcenter to funnel information at all times.

“Most emergencies or disaster events, like afire or hurricane, happen in a matter of hours ordays,” he says. “You can plan for the event andstaff for it accordingly, and once the event hap-pens, it’s done. This is not a typical disaster. It’sgoing to be with us for a long time; we’re lookingat it as a war, not a battle, that can go on formonths or even a year. As a result, we’ve had tolook at staffing and patient care differently.”

Dr. Wydro suggests Jefferson Health wasprepared to handle an expected surge in COVID-19 cases, but he’s happy to report the surge wasnot nearly as large as initially predicted. Goingforward, Dr. Wydro says his department remainsnimble and focused on meeting the challengesto come.

“Now we’re asking, ‘What will the next surgelook like, and how do we prepare for it withthings like staffing and treatment space?’” he says.“Now that we’ve been through this once, howwe can identify additional capacity to treat pa-tients? How do we do rational testing and makesound decisions around patient care? How do weutilize the space that we have and use it for alter-native treatment areas when necessary? Andhow do we rationally use the medicines to treatthe disease now that there is some compellingdata on their effectiveness in certain cases?”

In April and May, when statewide stay-at-home orders were firmly in place, JeffersonHealth experienced a precipitous drop in visits toits hospitals’ emergency departments. Whilemore people are now showing the confidenceto seek the care they need, Dr. Wydro has wit-nessed a troubling trend: The individuals cominginto the ER tend to be “higher acuity,” meaningthey are generally sicker than patients had beenpre-COVID-19. As a result, a higher percentageof people are being admitted to the hospital.

By continuing to reassure the public andshowing it can safely treat patients in need ofcare, Dr. Wydro hopes to see that trend soon re-verse, with patients coming into the hospital be-fore they become so ill.

“Managing acute and chronic trauma andmedical conditions is what we do,” he adds. “Asa leadership team, we’re listening to, learningfrom, and regularly meeting with our colleaguesacross the city and across the country, and wecontinue to come up with the best ways to pro-vide safe, highly effective care. We know it mightlook a little different, and our people might bewearing different types of equipment than theyhave in the past, but the same high level of careis there.” ■

For more information visit Northeast.JeffersonHealth.org

D Jefferson Health in the Northeast

JULY 2020

Gerald C. Wydro, M.D., Chairman, Department of Emergency Medicine, Jefferson Health – Northeast

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