Processing Your Payment

Please do not leave this page until complete. This can take a few moments.

Updated: May 18, 2020 Other Voices

Trinity Health CEO Eadie: The unintended consequences of ‘stay at home’ campaigns

Trinity Health of New England CEO Reginald Eadie.
By Reginald Eadie

Hospitals across the country have responded quickly and appropriately to the demands of the coronavirus.

In an effort to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus, a significant number of states ordered their residents to stay home. Additionally, businesses, communities and healthcare organizations flooded digital and traditional media outlets with messages like, “I stayed at work for you. You stay at home for us!” and “Whether or not you have COVID-19, stay home.”

To better understand the impact of this messaging, we have the responsibility to drill down with further questions that have data-supported answers. We can start by asking ourselves, how did Americans interpret these messages?

Emergency departments in areas impacted by COVID-19 have seen substantial declines in visits. In some locations, the reported decline in urgent and emergency visits is as high as 50%.

In the state of Connecticut, emergency department visits were, at one point, down by 43%. At one Connecticut hospital, the number of discharges during a 30-day period starting March 15 for five life-threatening illnesses — including heart attack, heart failure, stroke, appendicitis and gallbladder disease — showed a decline ranging from 43% to 72% when compared to the same 30-day period in the previous year.

This data, showing such unprecedented and significant declines, leads to the next important question: Are Americans staying at home for the wrong reasons?

Dr. Syed Hussain, chief clinical officer at Trinity Health Of New England, said that based on historical data, “we are aware that Connecticut residents desperately need medical attention for non-COVID related illnesses, and yet are staying home.”

With this large decrease in life-threatening hospital visits, it raises the question: Are people suffering with illnesses while staying home? Moreover, does this translate into an increase in at-home deaths?

According to NPR, New York City officials said more than 2,192 residents died in their homes during a two-week period starting in late March, compared to 453 at-home deaths during the same period a year earlier.

I wanted to collect more data, so I went straight to the source: funeral homes. I spoke with Howard Hill, the owner of Howard K. Hill Funeral Services located in Hartford, Bloomfield and New Haven, who told me he saw a 166% increase in at-home deaths during a 30-day period from March 15 to April 15, compared to a year earlier.

To compare New York and Connecticut with another state, I contacted Major Clora Jr., president and director of the Clora Funeral Home in Michigan, who revealed that his COVID-19 at-home removals increased 150% during that same 30-day period.

These increases in at-home deaths are stunning and in my opinion clearly show that community members listened to the “stay at home” messages they heard.

I also think it leads us, as a nation, to ask the most important question: Do the significant decreases in hospitalizations for these five serious illnesses and the increase in at-home deaths suggest another public health crisis is on the way?

Reginald Eadie is the president and CEO of Trinity Health Of New England.

Sign up for Enews

Most Recent

Most Recent

3 Comments

Anonymous
June 29, 2020

Let’s try and remember that in home death may have been the desired outcome for many of these folks who wanted to avoid the trauma of hospitalization and who had already communicated their care goals in clear advance directives.
The COVID virus may have an incidental contributor to the expected end of life trajectory of chronic disease.

Anonymous
May 31, 2020

I think there’s merit to this observation. People have followed the stay at home instruction and opted not to seek medical care due the the Coronavirus outbreak. It is unfortunate, but it’s true. Our coroner reports on deaths for our county. He was, at one point, testing for COVID19 post mortem, but the GBI stopped it due to case overload with their normal cases, so the health district started to perform tests post mortem. I’m more curious about whether the deaths are COVID19 related vs. people just staying at home and dying from other disease processes.

Order a PDF