The document is first in a series of Joint Commission alerts that address healthcare workers’ concerns and provide guidance on how to respond to crisis, preparing them for the often-overwhelming circumstances of caring for patients during a pandemic. One Iowa nurse quoted in the publication explained in stark terms how the continuing onslaught of COVID-19 is pushing nurses and other frontline healthcare workers beyond physical exhaustion and inflicting emotional damage on those who care for patients.

Key measures offered in the guidance for limiting the spread of COVID-19 include separating and sending home infected or potentially infected people in the workplace, implementing physical distancing, installing barriers where physical distancing cannot be maintained, and using face coverings.

You will need space to take a patient history (including any previous allergic or anaphylactic reactions to food, drugs, or insects), to administer the vaccine, to provide at least 15 minutes of observation for adverse reactions afterward, and an area to care for anyone who does have a reaction—all while maintaining the same social-distancing and infectious-disease precautions you’ve had since the pandemic began.

The poll, which is based at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, also shows that the some of the widest gaps in patient portal usage are among older adults who are at the highest risk of developing a severe case of COVID-19. 

People have been deferring care during the pandemic due to fear of contracting the coronavirus in healthcare settings. For five kinds of cancer, reduced cancer screening linked to the coronavirus pandemic has likely led to thousands of delayed cancer diagnoses, according to an IQVIA Institute report. For the three-month period ending June 5, 2020, the IQVIA Institute estimates there could have been more than 80,000 delayed positive diagnoses for breast, cervical, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancer.

Vaccination hesitancy among the American public is one of the primary challenges facing the coronavirus vaccination effort across the country. Vaccination is widely viewed as essential to controlling the coronavirus through herd immunity, which occurs when a large proportion of a population develops resistance to an infection.

Across the country, health systems and hospitals have established incident command centers to manage the challenges of the pandemic. At Northwell Health last spring, incident command leadership was a key element in the health system’s response to the hottest hot spot in the first coronavirus patient surge.

The survey, released Tuesday by Orlando Health Heart & Vascular Institute, also found that 49% of respondents will not reschedule missed in-person medical appointments until COVID-19 concerns are reduced in their area. The same number (49%) fret that their health will suffer because of the appointments.