COVID-19 Information

The COVID pandemic presented an incredible challenge to the health system requiring quick, flexible action by the staff of the hospital.  The Section of Hospital Medicine was integral in planning and implementing management of the floor COVID patients along with the incredible contributions of the IM Residency.  From the beginning of COVID, our providers volunteered to be on the front lines of the COVID unit, discharging more than 350 COVID+ patients and caring for many more.  Our team has contributed to the staffing of the COVID unit from the day the unit was open until the day the unit was decommissioned. At the peak of COVID, we had 9 hospitalists covering 24/7 the majority of the non-ICU COVID patients.  We took on the challenge of caring for high oxygen requiring patients that would typically be in the ICU to help offload the ICU burden of COVID patients. We also served on the COVID teams at Mercy hospital providing clinical care on a dedicated COVID team.

 

The Section also led efforts in forming the admission order sets and inpatient treatment pathways, and were integral in creating and reviewing several floor protocols for COVID patients including an early proning protocol.  We aided with the development of the Dr. Cart response for COVID teams.  Several Hospitalists worked on the COVID resource pager and the Scarce Resource Allocation Triage Team.  We worked with the pediatric hospitalists to prepare a contingency plan for admission of adult patients to the pediatric hospitalists.  We created interdisciplinary Case Conferences that were attended by members of various areas of the Department of Medicine and anesthesia to disseminate information regarding COVID and was able to involve medical students and residents as well integrating virtual education for PA students. These educational activities have helped many University of Chicago providers to learn from our experience and feel more comfortable carrying for COVID patients in an uncohorted fashion, currently in use.

 

We were able to publish papers on physical distancing in the hospital, virtual education during the crisis, the role of hazard pay, and the relationship between Vitamin D and COVID.  We have laid the groundwork to continue to collaborate and publish continued work on the long-term effects of COVID on our population.