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May 19, 2020

Staying safe as you reopen for business: Experts give advice 

PHOTO | File image Yale New Haven Hospital.
By Michelle Tuccitto Sullo

As hundreds of Connecticut businesses prepare to reopen Wednesday, Yale New Haven Health system staff have advice for how business owners can help reduce the risk of employees and customers getting infected with COVID-19.

The first priority is to make sure everyone can maintain social distancing in your office or retail business, according to Richard Martinello, MD, medical director, infection prevention for Yale New Haven Health and Yale Medicine.

This might mean rearranging work spaces and stations, or putting up barriers at cash registers, for example. 

Martinello also emphasized the need for hand hygiene, and making sure alcohol-based hand sanitizers are not only available to staff, but to customers. 

Finally, Martinello said using face masks is important inside places of business to reduce transmission — both for employees and guests.

He suggested practicing in advance how to engage with customers who try to enter a business without a mask on, in order to ensure compliance in an “effective and non-adversarial manner.”

“You want to create as safe an environment as you can,” Martinello said.

Thomas Balcezak, MD, chief clinical officer with Yale New Haven Health, said social distancing works, and it is important to continue the practice. 

Balcezak also noted how it was common for people to “tough it out” and come to work even if they didn’t feel well before this pandemic. 

Now, “if you are feeling sick, do everyone a favor and stay home,” Balcezak said.

Martinello and Balcezak were among a panel of YNHH leaders who spoke at a press conference Tuesday afternoon.

Decline in hospitalizations

Marna P. Borgstrom, CEO of YNHH, said the health system continues to see a decline in COVID-19 in-patient admissions. 

The health system includes not only Yale New Haven Hospital but Bridgeport and Greenwich Hospitals, Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London and Westerly Hospital in Rhode Island.

At the peak in April, there were more than 800 in-patients with the virus across the health system, and as of Tuesday, this had dropped to around 400, according to Borgstrom.

“Our hope is that we will continue to see the numbers decline,” Borgstrom said.

She still urged caution amid the drop in cases.

“I encourage everybody to stay focused and cautious,” Borgstrom said. “We are planning for a steady number of COVID patients. A lot of models project we will have rolling spiking [in cases] until we have a vaccination.”

As of Monday afternoon, Gov. Ned Lamont reported the state has had 38,116 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 3,449 deaths and 920 hospitalizations.

YNHH officials also indicated they have updated their treatment guidelines and are no longer recommending the use of the drug hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19, citing lack of effectiveness and adverse side effects. They are using the drug Remdesivir and oxygen therapy, for example, and frequently update their treatment protocols, according to Martinello and Balcezak.

Moving forward

Yale New Haven Health officials said last week they are scheduling procedures which were postponed due to the pandemic. YNHH had suspended or reduced non-emergency surgeries at all of its facilities on March 19. 

The health system is continuing to ramp up procedures which had been deferred, such as for cancer and heart patients, according to Borgstrom.

Meanwhile, the practice of telehealth, or conferring with a physician remotely, has been widely used and successful, YNHH officials said.

Martinello said telehealth had been used at a modest level in January, prior to the outbreak. Since then, there have been some 120,000 telehealth visits done throughout the system. 

“I think this practice will stick around for years to come,” Martinello said. “It is a positive change forced upon us by COVID.”

Contact Michelle Tuccitto Sullo at msullo@newhavenbiz.com.

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