COVID Chronicle

THE CHALLENGE OF CONSTANTLY CHANGING GU IDANCE “Policies are integral to the consistent delivery of high quality care across a healthcare system. They establish evidence-based guidance or ‘guard rails’ within which providers apply their training, knowledge, and care. At the same time we were responding to the COVID pandemic, the scientific clinical evidence was being developed. Best-practices evolved daily. As a result, guidance from accepted sources of truth (e.g. WHO, US CDC, ME CDC) was often ambiguous and remains so in many aspects of caring for COVID positive patients. As result, the organizational policies on which Northern Light Health relies to ensure consistent care to patients across the state changed frequently requiring those changes to be communicated to all levels of the system and care team. Timely and effective communication of the constant changes were not only essential to safe patient care, but equally important to the safety and sense of security/control to our employees during a very uncertain time.” – JEFF PARSONS

VP RISK & PATIENT SAFETY NORTHERN LIGHT HEALTH

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