Envision Healthcare Continues Robust Response to COVID-19 Crisis as New Hot Spots Emerge

Envision Healthcare, a leading national medical group, continues to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic as new hot spots emerge across the country. With cases spiking in Florida, Texas, Arizona and other states, Envision continues to answer America’s call for COVID-19 care. Envision is drawing on its experience caring for patients in New York City and other early crisis centers and sharing expertise from the front lines of the COVID-19 response so that patients across the country continue to receive the best medical care.

“Hearing early reports of the COVID-19 crisis, I knew my skills as an anesthesiologist and trauma expert would be valuable and was called to serve the country where the need was greatest,” said James Johnson, MD, a Fort Worth, Texas-based anesthesiologist, who led a team of nearly 200 deployed clinicians on the ground in New York City. “Even before returning home, we began working remotely with our anesthesia and critical care teams to share best practices and updated protocols, including updated treatment guidelines and intubation techniques, based on the lessons learned in New York. As our knowledge of COVID-19 evolves, we are constantly evaluating protocols to provide patients the safest, highest-quality of care.”

Dr. James Johnson shares three strategies from his deployment to New York that were essential in helping protect clinicians, preserve hospital capacity and save lives:

• Surge Preparedness: Gathering supplies and developing action plans to expand space, ensure personnel are in place within a hospital and have supplies ready, including personal protective equipment, ventilators, and medication. Knowing the current level of supplies and having a plan to expand those resources helps protect clinicians as they focus on treating patients.
• Clinical Coordination: Coordinating between providers, specialties and across hospital systems to develop updated treatment plans and best practices for COVID-19. Data and information sharing continues to improve patient outcomes.
• Triage Protocols: Updating triage protocols to ensure all patients are treated with the highest clinical standards in the case of overcapacity. Data on patient outcomes helps increase the likelihood for meaningful patient recovery while optimizing resource utilization.

Envision has mobilized a team of clinicians experienced in disaster and crisis response to address the challenges of this pandemic. As a national medical group, Envision has responded to other emergencies and natural disasters in communities nationwide. As patient volumes and COVID-19 cases rise in states across the country, Envision is prepared to deploy additional clinicians and resources to areas of greatest need.

Envision has taken a series of actions to respond to sharp increases in COVID-19 patients and protect and support its clinicians on the front lines, including:

• Mobilizing to meet the need for more physicians and advanced practice providers across the nation.
• Securing more than 5 million items of PPE, including masks, face shields, gowns, and goggles to support Envision’s clinicians and hospital partners.
• Deploying telehealth platforms to care for more than one-hundred thousand patient visits.
• Treating every patient regardless of their ability to pay.

About Envision Healthcare Corporation

Envision Healthcare Corporation is a leading national medical group that delivers physician and advanced practice provider services, primarily in the areas of emergency and hospitalist medicine, anesthesiology, radiology/teleradiology, and neonatology to more than 1,800 clinical departments in healthcare facilities in 45 states and the District of Columbia. Post-acute care is delivered through an array of clinical professionals and integrated technologies which, when combined, contribute to efficient and effective population health management strategies. As a market leader in ambulatory surgical care, the medical group owns and operates 257 surgery centers and one surgical hospital in 34 states and the District of Columbia, with medical specialties ranging from gastroenterology to ophthalmology and orthopedics. In total, the medical group offers a differentiated suite of clinical solutions on a national scale with a local understanding of our communities, creating value for health systems, payers, providers, and patients. For additional information, visit www.envisionhealth.com.

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