On March 11, 2020, the same date that the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, universities across the U.S. suspended in-person classes. The University of Missouri (MU) System campuses began offering remote courses the following week. This marked the beginning of a new era in online learning across all four UM System campuses.
While MU transitioned classes online, MU Health Care faced the challenge of providing safe healthcare for both COVID-19 patients and individuals with non-COVID-19-related conditions.
“It was probably the most challenging time that we’ve ever seen,” said Dr. Michael Rediger, the Chief Medical Officer for MU Health Care. “It was a challenge, but we had the ability to see emergent needs in our communities.”
According to Susan Hastert, who oversees the clinics’ patient care processes, the organization set up COVID-19 testing operations throughout the hospital and expanded telehealth services to ensure patients could still access care.
“I think it really opened our eyes to the fact that as a healthcare system we could have probably expanded services that we didn’t know that we could deliver, and I think it opened up opportunities for us to continue to change,” Hastert said. “I see a lot more healthcare providers who are willing to deliver telehealth services and just look at healthcare services more than they were before.”
Rediger and other healthcare staff have adapted and met the challenges of this shift. “We have to have options to deliver healthcare in many different ways,” she said. “And there are definitely limitations that we can face.”
MU Health Care implemented several changes, including virtual appointments, modifications to care settings to maintain social distancing, and expanded testing procedures to ensure patient and staff safety during the pandemic.
According to Rediger, MU Health Care’s Chief Medical Officer, the organization also focused on ways to adapt to the situation. He said that the partnership between MU Health Care and the University of Missouri System’s Medical School was also a critical element of this adaptation.
“One of the things that really brought us together was that the Health Care and the University were a focused effort.”
Even though the scope of the changes is immense, Rediger says he hopes that the healthcare staff has now adapted.
“The providers are resilient,” Rediger said as he reflected on the past few years. “They keep going, and now that’s the last round of providers who are really delivering.”
