Recent collaboration between Signature HealthCARE and Genesis HealthCare during the COVID-19 pandemic revealed that industry leaders should look to establish formal networks and build on pre-existing programs to facilitate and encourage collaboration across organizations.
The need for interprofessional collaborations across organizations is not new but has only intensified since the pandemic and the collaboration between the two skilled nursing powerhouses helped bridge internal and external gaps between the two organizations. It also resolved overlaps in roles and tasks and provided much needed operational and clinical clarity.
Featured in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association (JAMDA), Signature HealthCARE and Genesis HealthCare together developed a framework for interprofessional collaboration during the pandemic and in the future
It suggests post-acute and long-term care leaders should establish formal connections with federal bodies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and should seek a formal seat at the table in policy-making both at the federal and state level.
“Knowing that Signature and Genesis both were aligned in this mission, the top clinical leaders came together to define an approach for effective information sharing and collaboration within and between organizations,” Dr. Arif Nazir, Signature’s Chief Medical Officer said in the press release.
Interprofessional committees created at corporate and facility levels helped bridge gaps with infection control, and weekly calls and facility huddles helped ensure everyone was on the same page in getting facility staff the coaching they needed. Communication and sharing key recommendations across the two companies became imperative as the two shared what they were doing in response to the pandemic.
According to Dr. Richard Feifer, executive vice president and chief medical officer for Genesis HealthCare, there continues to be a need in long-term care to find better and faster ways to work together, to innovate and solve problems as they arise.
“Efficient collaboration within and across organizations and stakeholder groups has been absolutely critical in our efforts to care for our patients and protect our staff,” he said in the press release.
The two organizations found that developing a common vision around the role of medical directors as administrative leaders both during day-to-day and emergency operations was key to their collaboration. This was done by setting frequent calls with medical directors at corporate and facility level and by inviting medical directors to educational meetings and webinars by professional associations.
“In a Public Health Emergency, it is essential that providers of all classifications band together to combat a virus that claims the health and lives of our communities,” Annette Wenzler, chief nursing officer of Signature HealthCARE, said in the press release. “It indeed was our sharing and collaboration of information, expertise, and ideas that gave us a win in many ways in this fight, despite these tragic and challenging events in our history.”