Utah’s population is, on average, young and healthy. Its health care system reflects that: hospital capacity is relatively small compared to other states because most people who live here don’t usually require extensive medical services.

COVID-19 has upended those assumptions. Medical professionals at Ashley Regional Medical Center and elsewhere in Utah have a revised set of goals to better meet patient needs caused by the current health crisis. Goals include:

• A shift from volume to value in terms of care and payment
• Directing health care to patients who need help most, reducing inappropriate or wasteful health care
• Improving case management
• Helping patients get the supplies and prescriptions they need more effectively
• Ensuring that COVID-19 has a low transmission rate within the hospital

Even though the pandemic is top of mind for everyone these days, other medical needs still need attention, particularly when it relates to your ability to keep your business open and running.

Ashley Regional Medical Center has a full-time occupational medicine program called WorkPoint. This service is provided for employers seeking resources for drug screening, physicals or wellness programs. It offers an array of services in its office and travel to other locations to do on-site services for organizations.

What else do you need to know when employees need drug testing or medical care for work-related injuries during the pandemic? Read on.

DRUG TESTING

Plan Ahead
It used to be drug testing was easy to arrange, and scheduling it wasn’t a problem because you could assume results would be back within the day. If you offer someone a job, you should also ask them to arrange for a drug test as soon as possible so that if they have to wait, it won’t throw off your plans. Unfortunately, you cannot allow them to start working for you until you have that test result, and medical professionals may be overwhelmed with acute care demands. The sooner you can arrange for a test, the better.

Use Alternate Providers
You may be used to using a specific clinic for all drug testing. That clinic may have closed in recent months, or it might be busy with COVID-19 testing. If you find that wait times are too long, this is a good time to widen the net and consider other clinics, including WorkPoint. Since its focus is on work-related needs instead of the pandemic, the wait time might be shorter.

Be Willing to Drive
If the drive time is shorter than the wait time, driving may be the best solution. Alternatively, WorkPoint employees may be willing to come to you instead. Don’t wait in a clinic or hospital for two hours if someone from WorkPoint can drive to you in 30 minutes.

MEDICAL CARE

Know Your Work-Injury Benefits
If you have a life-threatening emergency, call 911. It’s better to get an injured employee the care they need than to worry about the financial details. But since those details are expensive, you should also be familiar with the options for treating work-related injuries. Please build a good relationship with whoever is coordinating the care for your program, and make sure you let them know all relevant details as soon as possible to help you coordinate care within your network of medical professionals. It will be cheaper, and whoever pays the bill will appreciate that.

Consider Specialty Care Instead of Urgent Care
Urgent care is not necessarily prompt care. Emergency rooms have to prioritize the medical care they give. They will always help the most seriously ill person first, not the person who has been in the waiting room the longest. Wait times might be short when you call, and then they can change by the time you get there.
If applicable, it’s better to opt for specialty care instead of urgent care. Suppose an employee has a foreign body in one eye. If the employee goes to an eye doctor instead of an emergency room, the eye doctor won’t be treating patients with COVID-19, and the employee will probably receive care faster. Many specialists set aside time each day for new injury appointments. That way, they have time to help people when there is an accident.

Think About Urgency
If an employee gets hurt, many people immediately respond by thinking the emergency room is the obvious choice for getting help. However, you might want to arrange better care under less stressful circumstances by having the employee wait a day. Not every injury can wait, but if it can, there will be less stress on everyone by allowing people a little time to make an appointment at a convenient time.

Avoiding COVID-19 Exposure
Sometimes people avoid reporting a medical problem or getting the needed treatment because they don’t want to be exposed to COVID-19 in the waiting room. When you’ve been practicing social distancing for the better part of the year, this is an understandable mindset. But some clinics only see patients who need work-related care, and they aren’t doing COVID-19 testing or providing COVID-19 care. You will still want to take all the necessary precautions, of course, but many medical problems get worse over time and have less-than-optimal outcomes if care is delayed.

If you need medical care, do what you can to get that care as soon as possible. Talk to a medical professional to be sure you are balancing medical needs against the risk of exposure to the virus.

Communicate with Providers
Your medical professionals want to help you get the care you need. This pandemic will end someday, but while it is ongoing, please be sure to get the care you need in every aspect of your life.