Dr. G. Dean Roye is a self-declared pessimist, always concerned about everything. But when thinking about the next few months and the state of health care in the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, he is feeling upbeat.
“I think almost universally, we’re all optimistic,” said Roye, who is the senior vice president and chief medical officer of Rhode Island Hospital. “What we’ve seen as we lessened the mask mandates around the state and seeing that the infections really haven’t increased, I do think that our clinicians, our nurses, our employees are very hopeful.”
Lifespan Corp., which owns Rhode Island Hospital, made masks optional for patients and visitors effective April 6. Employees are “looking forward to working without masks” for the first time in three years, Roye said.
Lifespan is not alone in its choice, as hospitals across the state have gradually eased their policies around masking, including Care New England Health System. This comes as transmission rates are at an all-time low, vaccination rates at an all-time high, and almost simultaneously to President Joe Biden’s decision to end the COVID-19 national emergency and the approaching end of the public health emergency on May 11.
At Providence Business News’ Spring 2023 Health Care Summit and Health Care Heroes Awards on April 6, health care leaders talked about the impact of the end of the emergency and what Rhode Islanders can expect over the next few months.
“This doesn’t mean that COVID-19 is going to go away,” said Kristine Campagna, director of community health and equity at the R.I. Department of Health. “We know that it is a welcome milestone, but COVID-19 won’t go away completely. It just means it will be a manageable respiratory virus.”
Campagna and Roye were joined during one of the panel discussions by Corey McCarty, senior vice president and general manager at CCA Health Rhode Island, and Jane Hayward, co-chair of the Rhode Island Foundation’s Long-Term Health Planning Committee.
The end of the public emergency will bring some changes, but Campagna said most services will remain the same. The COVID-19 vaccine will continue to be available to Rhode Islanders, and similarly, the COVID-19 treatment will continue to be accessible to the public at no cost, thanks to the federally purchased doses.
The one place people might see some changes is COVID-19 testing, which Campagna said will get “complicated.”
“We know that some insurers won’t be able to cover some kinds of tests,” Campagna said. “Private insurers will no longer be required to cover these tests, so they will decide if they want to cover them.”
Campagna said the R.I. Department of Health will start communicating with Rhode Islanders about these incoming changes over the next few weeks.
Despite the end of the emergency and the loosening of restrictions, Campagna said the state is not expecting to see any significant surges over the next few months. And if there are changes, Rhode Island is much better equipped to face them than it was years ago.
“Our vaccine rate is high in Rhode Island, and we have good coverage throughout the state,” she said. “And also, the basic natural immunity that we have built up in our communities is there. We have good treatments, which are good at preventing those adverse outcomes. And we know a lot more around prevention as well and control for COVID-19 at this point.”
Roye agreed but still encouraged caution.
“We do need to realize that we can see new variances develop as time goes on,” he said. “While we have one of the highest vaccine rates in the United States, there are some of our populations that have not taken advantage of getting vaccinated and those people would be at increased risk for obviously coming down with infections.”
Some of the biggest challenges in the following months will be addressing the workforce shortage that has been plaguing the health care field for years.
“We are seeing it [shortage] across the delivery system, particularly in some key areas that have [a] big impact: we are seeing it in skilled nursing facilities, in home health care and home health agencies, in behavioral health,” McCarty said. “Those shortages create issues in people getting access to care where it’s most appropriate and safest for them.”
This shortage, which is putting pressure on the entire system, overwhelming providers and overcrowding offices, requires long-term planning and collaboration, the panelists said.
Hayward, who talked about Rhode Island Foundation’s 10-year plan for improving health in Rhode Island, noted the importance of cooperation between leaders. This was one of the ideas behind the creation of the Long-Term Health Planning Committee, she said, which brings together representatives from all corners of the sector. And after the pandemic, this cooperation is even more important.
“We have to have a much more coordinated approach,” Hayward said.
Panelists agreed, in particular when tackling a systemwide issue such as the workforce shortage.
“We all know it will take a village to do this work,” Campagna said. “And it will take every aspect of the sector to make this happen.”
