Since the Covid-19 era began, the physical and emotional toll exacted on exhausted healthcare providers and caregivers is staggeringly difficult to comprehend. Some of the more personal, first-person stories are not just overwhelming, but also heartbreaking. A callous observer might remark that this theatre is what doctors and nurses signed up for, but what we’ve witnessed over the past year goes well beyond the managed expectations of our frontline healthcare workers.
Imagine the sense of urgency in providing critical care to a patient inflicted with Covid’s chief calling card—difficulty breathing. The lack of breathable oxygen is particularly terrifying for patients. In the Covid wards of our nation’s hospitals, both urban and rural, people are dying every day. Sometimes, it’s the very caregivers who were once tending to patients. The sheer volume of tragedies soon to be written about this dreadful time of sickness in our history will bear witness to it all.
Our nations’ doctors, nurses, aides, administrators, and hospital staff are at the breaking point. Yet still, they find the strength to continue.
Burnout is an ugly word, applying not just to our beleaguered healthcare workers, but to all industries and trades. Even pre-pandemic, studies and surveys often found a burnout rate approaching 50%. Now, these same caregivers have been asked to take on more work, more hours, more toil, and more heartache. And how are they often rewarded? A long drive home alone, perhaps passing numerous bars, restaurants and nightclubs, packed with patrons blissfully unconcerned about the global pandemic swirling around them.
Our frontline caregivers need a break. And a change. Soon. Change that includes taking proactive steps to protect the physical and mental health of caregivers. One proven solution and bright spot has been the implementation of virtual care and remote patient monitoring.
In 2020, VitalTech answered the call, pivoting their very business model to address the most urgent need of all—taking the pressure off of hospital systems strained to the breaking point.
And there’s proof that it works.
We invite you to download and read VitalTech’s gripping case study about what happened at the Holy Name Medical Center in Teabrook, New Jersey.
