KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Thirty days ago, stay-at-home orders in the Kansas City area had just begun, and life was changing in ways even some doctors never expected.
Three doctors from the University of Kansas Health System spoke about what they wish they had known 30 days ago and what they believe the community needs to know for the next 30 days.
What they wish they knew 30 days ago
Dr. Dana Hawkinson, infectious diseases:
“I wish I would have known the exact way and how much this virus and this infection permeates through society. Things like getting our food, going to the grocery store, and specifically how it impacts everything that we’re doing in health care. Every little aspect of everything we do now, it always has the umbrella of COVID over it. So we have to change things and we are changing things. We have to make new protocols, different protocols to keep our patients safe and to keep our other health care workers safe."
Dr. Steven Stites, chief medical officer:
“I wish I would have known the full adaptability and resiliency of people. I am so impressed by how folks in our area in Kansas City have bent the curve and the way we have acted so responsibility to do that. That is remarkable to me, and I think both the love and affection that they show for each other and how they stay in contact through Zoom or just by respecting that distance of 6 feet...I’m impressed by how well people have responded to what is the greatest crisis of our lifetime.”
Dr. Christopher Brown, hospital medicine:
“I really did not know that toll, that impact within the health care system, but also you know from a social, economic aspect, just from a community level, from a state level, from a generalized level."
Brown also described talking to other health care workers caring for COVID-19 positive patients.
“Where they’re having to literally self-isolate, quarantine themselves when they’re on service taking care of these patients,” he said. “The toll is tremendous.”
The next 30 days
Hawkinson:
“I think the next 30 days holds continued individual vigilance to adherence of public health guidance. Individual vigilance towards continuing to do good basic infection prevention. Hygiene practices such as washing your hands frequently, using soap and water, alcohol gel, not touching your face, staying home and staying away if you're sick. I think the next 30 days holds that and hopefully through those measures, we can continue to flatten the curve and really decrease the amount of infections throughout our society.”
Stites:
“What I think the next 30 days will hold is the adaptability that people will show in a COVID world. It’s not gonna go away. We have to find new ways to live, new ways to come together.
“If the last 30 days is any indication, the next 30 days will surprise us again by people finding new ways to work, new ways to express their love and affection for each other, and new ways to live in this post-COVID or this 'true COVID' world. I think adaptability and resiliency of people both looking back and looking forward is the story I didn’t know.”
Brown:
“What will the next 30 days bring? I have no idea. I truly do not know. We have to remain optimistic. We have to remain positive. We have to remain vigilant, continue to practice appropriate hygiene, self-distancing, and in hopes that the individuals who are researching this virus can come up with a vaccine.
"'Thank you' is not gonna recognize all those other individuals and organizations who are showing a lot of love and a lot of support in a lot of different ways to heath care providers and health care systems in managing and treating this patient population."
