Planning for the Pandemic: A Community Hospital Story.

When the Covid 19 pandemic affected New York State, Federal and mostly State, mandates were given to hospitals to prepare for the expected influx of patients. This is a community hospital's planning journey that includes preparing for placing patients, educating caregivers, matching the abilities of the available caregivers with the needs of the patients, securing needed equipment and supplies, and caring for the caregivers. Planning for patient placement resulted in a phased-in guide, accommodating seriously and critically ill affected patients. Education and training were initial and ongoing, rapidly changing as new information became available. Effective care delivery models that focused on team were modified depending on the needs of patients and staff competence. Securing and maintaining equipment and supplies were challenging and caring for the caregivers was a priority. Working as a team, this community hospital developed a road map that was effective in planning for the surge and allowed the hospital to maintain a safe environment for staff and patients who received quality care in difficult time.

Nurse-Led Initiative to Improve Addiction Services: An Interdisciplinary Approach.

Local efforts to provide treatment for individuals with substance use disorder have had some success in addressing the continued nationwide drug epidemic. A nurse-led withdrawal and stabilization program was developed that includes an interdisciplinary team of physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, social workers, and substance abuse counselors. Utilizing a shared vision of optimal patient care, we describe how principles of high reliability were incorporated to build a successful program within a community hospital setting from the design of the unit, development of treatment protocols, staffing, and ongoing program refinement that is based on patient and program staff feedback to final thoughts for future program changes.