Everyone can use a comforting friend or a word of encouragement during the pandemic. As these unprecedented times lead to increased loneliness and anxiety, the fight to overcome COVID-19 is better with a companion by your side. For healthcare workers at HCA Healthcare's Rose Medical Center, their companion just happens to be a one-year-old Labrador.

Although COVID-19 has separated us, the virus has also caused us to stand firm and grow closer together. At the heart of what we do, we strive to take care of people, both patients and employees. In an effort to reduce the hardships produced by COVID-19, The Frist Foundation has donated $1 million to support colleagues affected by the COVID-19 to the HCA Healthcare Hope Fund.

The availability of N95 respirators and other critical personal protective equipment (PPE) has been a major area of concern during the pandemic. As hospitals around the globe begin to run low on essential equipment, HealthTrust Workforce Solutions' parent company, HCA Healthcare, reassures the public of the hospital's adequate supply and the guidelines that are being taken to preserve it's resources. 

Our parent company, HCA Healthcare is teaming up with Google Cloud and SADA to launch a data portal for the COVID-19 pandemic. The open data platform will help accelerate analysis and response by aggregating data on ICU bed and ventilator utilization, testing results, and total number of patient visits to America’s hospital systems. 

HCA Healthcare is proud to collaborate with Google Cloud on the announcement of the COVID-19 National Response Portal, an open data platform built and operated by SADA. Running on Google Cloud, the platform is intended to promote data-sharing about the COVID-19 pandemic and how it is spreading in an effort to help hospitals and communities prepare and respond.

“COVID-19 presents a unique and significant challenge to healthcare providers, and collaboration and coordination is more important than ever to help ensure the best possible response,” said Dr. Edmund Jackson, HCA Healthcare’s chief data officer. “While COVID-19 has driven us apart physically, we will respond to it by coming together digitally. We are proud to work alongside Google Cloud to create a platform to help address this urgent public health challenge.”

The COVID-19 National Response Portal is intended to enable healthcare providers across the country to safely share and display anonymous, aggregated metrics from hospital systems into a single platform to show a complete and real-time view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data can be submitted each day from hospital systems across the United States and will be focused on metrics such as:

• ICU bed supply and utilization;
• ventilator supply and utilization;
• total numbers of positive, negative, and pending COVID-19 test results;
• and total numbers of healthy patients who have been discharged.

The platform will also have the ability to leverage publicly available datasets, such as data on local shelter-in-place policies, and traffic or mobility patterns, to help shed light on how public behaviors and policies may impact the spread of COVID-19.

“Healthcare organizations need access to accurate and timely information around the country to plan for care and respond to COVID-19,” said Philip Moyer, Vice President, Industry Sales at Google Cloud. “We’re proud to team up with HCA Healthcare and SADA in the launch of this important new data resource for care providers on the front lines.”

“As healthcare providers, we are all battling the same crisis,” said Michael Wargo, vice president of emergency preparedness at HCA Healthcare. “However, we are being faced with COVID-19 at different times and levels of severity. By pooling our data into one cohesive platform, we can share best practices to better prepare communities across the country for this unprecedented pandemic.”

As a learning health system, HCA Healthcare uses data from approximately 35 million annual patient encounters to improve care through research and innovation. HCA Healthcare, which will provide statistical data from its 185 hospitals, structured in a manner to comply with HIPAA and other applicable restrictions, has invited groups representing approximately 4,000 hospitals across the country to join and share data on the platform.

HCA Healthcare, SADA and Google Cloud are in the process of sharing additional details and seeking to onboard other hospitals. The platform is expected to go live to the public next week.

Hospitals interested in learning more and submitting data should visit onboarding.nationalresponseportal.com.

The CDC has issued a recommendation for citizens to use cloth face coverings in “public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies), especially in areas of significant community-based transmission.”

This is another step to help reduce the potential transmission of COVID-19, especially from people who show no symptoms.

We kindly remind members of our community to use non-medical reusable masks. Please do your part to help make sure medical grade masks stay in the hands of our healthcare professionals and first responders as they continue caring during COVID-19.

The first person to be diagnosed with COVID-19 in Warren County, KY is now recovering at home and credits the preparedness of caregivers at TriStar Greenview, an HCA Healthcare-affiliated hospital. David Broderick, 73, was recently diagnosed with COVID-19, after recently traveling to Colorado. However, he is thankful for the attentive staff who took the necessary precautions to ensure a quick recovery. 

We're thankful to our colleagues at TriStar for their dedication to quality patient care!

Long before the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus as a pandemic, Grand Strand Medical Center, an HCA Healthcare-affiliated facility, had encouraged the environmental services team to diligently prepare in the fight against the virus.

Through extensive facility cleaning efforts, Grand Strand Medical Center worked to reduce the virus' potential presence to enhance the protection of patients. 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) March 2020 Hiring Situation confirmed what we already suspected: COVID-19 made a tremendous impact on job growth and hiring in March. The U.S. economy lost 701,000 jobs and the unemployment rate jumped to 4.4%, up from a half-century low of 3.5% in February. This ended the decade-long record of employment growth marking the first and steepest decline in payrolls since the Great Recession. 

The strict measures put in place to help contain the spread of the virus have left many businesses shuttered with the majority of Americans ordered to stay at home outside of essential workers, which include our important healthcare workers on the front lines fighting the virus. 

Healthcare lost 42,500 jobs last month, with the vast majority within ambulatory care (-40,700). Hospital job growth was virtually flat. The healthcare unemployment rate grew from 2.2% in February to 2.8% in March. Over the prior 12 months, health care employment had grown by 374,000. 

The U.S. has the highest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19, with more than 245K people infected, according to the latest Johns Hopkins University data available at this time.  

The world has changed, but the core of our nurses has not. Our daily lives have been upended, but our nurses stand up, show up and give patients the compassion and care they need and deserve. Read on to hear five stories from the frontlines.

COVID-9 has introduced much uncertainty and anxiety into our daily lives as we navigate our new "norm". As we continue to navigate our "new norm", the mental health of our team members is important to us. 

“While our in-hospital colleagues continue to carry out their compassionate and courageous duty to care for and improve human life, it’s important for those that are at home during COVID-19 to keep perspective and carry on,” said Dr. Frank Drummond, HCA Healthcare’s medical director of behavioral health services. “We can do this by taking care of our mental health during this challenging moment in history. Reach out to check on the well-being of others, practice self-care, engage in activities that give you purpose and stay calm.”

Things you can do to support yourself:

• Take breaks from watching, reading, or listening to news stories, including social media. Hearing about the pandemic repeatedly can be upsetting.
• Take care of your body. Take deep breaths, stretch, or meditateexternal icon. Try to eat healthy, well-balanced meals, exercise regularly, get plenty of sleep, and avoid alcohol and drugs.
• Make time to unwind. Try to do some other activities you enjoy.
• Connect with others. Talk with people you trust about your concerns and how you are feeling.

We’re all in this together and even the smallest steps can make a big difference. Learn more about the CDC's guidance on mental health and coping during the coronavirus outbreak here.