We’ve put together a list of five resources we hope will help you help your patients through the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of these sites and organizations are worth following in the best of times, but all have gone above and beyond to collect and create resources for anyone working in the medical field. We want to make sure these resources are passed on to providers.
COVID Ready Communication Playbook – By Vital Talk
Vital Talk is a nonprofit that trains clinicians on how to have effective, empathetic, and honest conversations with patients and their families through interactive courses. The faculty is comprised of clinicians who practice what they teach and specialize in having tough conversations with seriously ill patients.
Vital Talk is based in Seattle, which gave them an early look at the pandemic that’s now sweeping the country. They created a free open source communication playbook to help prepare you for the conversations you might be having in the coming weeks and months if you are not already. The guide is split into three modes: conventional, contingency, and crisis. Please note that crisis mode is a designation reserved solely for your institution to declare. The link above, and also here, are links to their live online guide, which is being updated constantly as the crisis evolves and new findings are incorporated.
COVID-19 Weekly Clinical Webinars – Sound Physicians
Sound Physicians focuses on one of the most critical elements of patient experience – patient outcomes. The group is physician-founded and led, and focuses on acute episodes of care, making their experience particularly valuable at this moment.
The group is conducting weekly webinars to keep clinicians informed of best practices for treating patients with COVID-19. There are also tips for how best for providers to protect themselves. All webinars are evidence-based and include updates from the group’s Chief Medical Officer. Links to recordings of past webinars can be found here.
KevinMD.com – Kevin Pho, MD
Dr. Kevin Pho markets himself as social media’s leading physician voice. He founded KevinMD.com to allow healthcare providers, medical students, and even patients to share their insights and tell their stories. Many of the articles are shared across his social media channels, which include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
The site accepts multiple submissions each day, meaning the content of the site is constantly changing. As you might imagine, COVID-19 related content is plentiful these days. The blog’s articles on assisting COVID-19 patients are top-quality, but there are also plenty of articles offering advice on telehealth. If you’ve recently made a rapid transition into telehealth, a primer for those new to the world of telemedicine offers some great advice on setting up the hardware, which will free you up to focus on your patients.
PX Weekly – By The Beryl Institute
The Beryl Institute is an excellent starting place for refining your patient experience skills. The institute offers a variety of educational resources, including webinars, conferences, journals, and more. Our PX Scores were inspired by research published in their Patient Experience Journal.
PX Weekly is an excellent newsletter for all providers. It includes links to helpful articles, updates on virtual and live events, and insightful guest blog posts. Their coverage of COVID-19 resources has been incredible. It answers questions such as “What Your Vented Patients Would Ask if they Could.” The organization also uses these emails to promote their Experience Framework, featuring one strategic lens each month. Some of the institute’s resources do require payment to access, but there are many useful resources such as PX Weekly that can access free of charge. Click Here to sign up for this newsletter.
ZDoggMD.com – Zubin Damania, MD
Dr. Zubin Damania practices medical satire with a health 3.0 focused mission. You may know him for his parody videos, live shows, and clever rhymes, but his videos are also full of serious points and observations on the current state of medicine.
His COVID-19 coverage puts this serious side on display. Providers can find useful bits of advice throughout his interviews and reports. He’s been recording video coverage nightly, so be sure to tune in to keep up with the latest. Or if you just need a quick laugh between patients to maintain your positivity, the 59-second video Doc Vader on CDC Conspiracies might do the trick.
Sometimes it’s still important to laugh and smile, even in a crisis. We hope these videos will help both you and your patients do a little of both in the coming months.
