We apologize if you already received today’s newsletter yesterday afternoon!
Our mistake. We will try to avoid untimely, duplicate email in the future.
Happy Thursday! Enjoy today’s
NCMS Morning Rounds.
Feb. 27, 2020
Coronavirus Preparations for Health Care Professionals
The NC Department of Health and Human Resources (NCDHHS) has provided specific guidance for health care professionals caring for suspected or confirmed cases of Covid-19. As of this week, no confirmed cases have been reported in the state, however, national agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state agencies like NCDHHS are preparing for the virus’ potential spread in the US. Part of that is alerting physicians and PAs to the proper protocols.
- Read the NCDHHS’ Guidance for Patients with Suspected or Confirmed 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Infection and Their Healthcare Providers. This document outlines how to minimize and prevent spread of the virus in your practice and offers signage you can download to post in waiting areas among other resources. It also includes information on monitoring and protecting you and your staff from the virus.
• This flowchart walks you through how to identify and assess a potential case of Covid-19 infection.
• This Feb. 3 letter to all North Carolina clinicians and laboratories from State Epidemiologist Zack Moore, MD, MPH, provides a summary of the criteria for evaluating potential cases as well as the state requirement that clinicians and laboratories report all suspected cases. Read the letter.
Check the state’s Covid-19 website frequently for updates as this is a rapidly evolving situation.
NCMS leadership is in close contact with state officials and will immediately share any information that directly impacts you, your practice and your patients via email and the NCMS Morning Rounds. In the meantime, experts say to follow the above guidance, stay calm and wash your hands!
The Path to a National Top 10 Health Ranking for NC
NCMS President-elect and Chief Strategy Officer Philip Brown, Jr., MD, is working diligently to raise awareness of the NC Institute of Medicine’s Healthy NC 2030 report and the goal of North Carolina achieving a top 10 national health ranking by 2030.
“I truly believe that we have a legitimate shot at a Top 10 ranking by 2030, and to make it a reality we must have the best statewide alignment behind health that has ever existed,” he said.
Over the past several weeks, Dr. Brown has been highlighting each of the 21 health indicators identified in the Healthy NC 2030 report on Twitter. You can follow him at @docpbrown.
He also has posted a series of brief articles on LinkedIn. Here is his latest article in which Dr. Brown advocates for the change necessary to improve the health of all North Carolinians.
As we stand in the gateway to a new decade, North Carolinians find ourselves poised to lose our single most important factor for prosperity. As I write, North Carolina ranks number 36 among the US States in overall health. When poor health is prevalent, prosperity cannot exist. This assault on wellness is occurring at a time when overall medical knowledge is at an all-time high, when scientific understanding of disease has led to numerous cures for previously fatal diseases, and when we in North Carolina have health care systems that are among the best in the nation. Yet this paradox continues, and for a single reason. We have allowed it to be this way. My intention here is to begin aligning individuals and groups who share the perspective that our health holds the key to ultimate economic prosperity in North Carolina, and that eliminating racial disparities will result in not only improvements for all, but in the best overall health we have ever attained.
For many decades, North Carolinians have failed to proactively address the 80 percent of factors that determine health, focusing instead on the small components of reparative health that could be repaired through delivery of medical care, and mainly those that occur in the acute setting, where the lion’s share of 20 percent of our GDP is now spent. This is a failed formula and we must immediately commit to changes required to move our great state to a health ranking in the top 10 during this decade, and to achieve nation’s best health ranking within a generation.
To get there we must be bold, and I believe we will. Systems having failed us, it is now time to dismantle the system of policies that drive racial disparities of health. No longer will we tolerate the most inhumane form of inequity, injustice in health. We must rigorously interrogate the results of behaviors, programs and policy that feed racial disparities in health, and then systematically eliminate each and every driver of inequity. I believe that we possess all the resources and talents necessary, but the fact is that we have never made the decisions nor marshaled the resources required for such leadership. We have never specified long range health goals on an urgent time schedule, nor managed our resources and our time so as to insure their fulfillment.
Future posts on Healthy North Carolina 2030 will begin to address a vision of how we will ascend to a new pinnacle of health, one that makes health outcomes equitable and promotes economic prosperity across the state for decades to come.
NCMS Welcomes UNC Med Students with Advocacy Briefing
Forrest, back left, meets with UNC medical students at the NCMS in Raleigh.
Yesterday NCMS Director of Legislative Relations Sue Ann Forrest, MPA, met with five University of North Carolina School of Medicine students at the NCMS Center for Leadership in Medicine. The students were eager to learn more about how to effectively advocate for their future profession.
Forrest outlined the NCMS’ advocacy priorities and took the students on a tour of the legislative building right down the street from the NCMS headquarters.
“It’s really great to see medical students so engaged with the process and looking to support their profession and the health of North Carolinians,” Forrest said. “I’m always happy to help educate our members – at all stages of their careers – on how they can get involved.”
Once the General Assembly reconvenes on April 29, Forrest once again will be leading our White Coat Wednesday briefings and visits with legislators each Wednesday. Learn more and sign up today to participate in this informative and important work.
In the News
‘This Might Be Bad,’ CDC Says US Should Prepare for More Coronavirus Cases, The Advisory Board Forum, 2-26-20
Learning Opportunity
A Capital Medical Reserve Corps (CMRC) Orientation/ Training will be held Thursday, March 5 from 6 to 9 pm. in Garner. The Medical Reserve Corps is part of the state’s emergency response team and comprises medical and non-medical volunteers who are interested in assisting during special events, public health emergencies, or disasters that have had a catastrophic impact on a community’s health care infrastructure. CMRC volunteers could be deployed anywhere in the state for up to three days. Learn more about this particular orientation and training session and register here.