Coronavirus heroes: Visitor policies, telehealth and more are part of changes at Mount Nittany Health

From visitor policies to telehealth visits, health systems face a need to make quick changes amid the coronavirus pandemic. In his role as physician leader and administrator, Dr. Christopher Hester has been part of implementing changes that affect patients, community members and staff at Mount Nittany Health.

Hester is a provider with Mount Nittany Physician Group Internal Medicine and clinical chief officer of primary care services, and his primary office is in Bellefonte.

“Within our primary care offices where much of the action (initially took place) for coronavirus, the mood and feeling (was) similar to the community,” Hester said. “Some were not very concerned in their own minds and other people were extremely anxious and wouldn’t go outside of their homes.”

While he normally would work on the front lines with patient care, he said he was “pulled” to help with decision-making.

“It’s easy to stand in the background and tell people what to do,” Hester said. “Seeing my own patients personally was severely limited during this time.”

Some of the decisions Hester helped enact were drive-thru testing, telehealth visits, use of protective equipment and providing masks when patients visit.

Hester believes much of Centre County’s success can be attributed to the lack of initial influx of cases before guidelines from the Department of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were put in place.

“Without the initial influx, the things that were done to control the spread and flatten the curve truly worked in our area,” Hester said. “Our doubling rate never became excessively high like New York City.”

He cited the limiting of physician services to essential visits, stay-at-home orders, masking and social distancing as to what furthered the success in Centre County.

Still, there were plenty of challenges when it came to decision-making.

“It was hard trying to keep up with rapidly evolving information with the coronavirus,” Hester said. “At times we were literally changing on a daily basis.”

He said the office initiated telehealth visits in 7-10 days, a process that might normally take several months.

“Rapid change within an organization is accelerated during a pandemic,” Hester said, noting that the telehealth process involved many people in different disciplines.

Another challenge Hester faced was deciding who should be asked to come in for an appointment with the limiting of visits.

“We’re here to serve the community and we want to do the best we can for them,” Hester said. “It was a fear that if a staff member got the virus it would spread and then (we would) have to shut down the office.”

However, Hester said the collaboration between everyone was “amazing,” and while he said he can’t offer an opinion on whether there might be a “second wave,” he does have concerns.

“For me personally, I am concerned that as the community and everyone returns to normal activities there is clearly a risk for further transmission — a second wave — and people (will become) lax with the guidelines that have been put in place for social distancing,” Hester said.

His biggest concern, though, lies within nursing homes and other personal care homes.

“It could be devastating for those institutions when they open those doors (again),” Hester said.