In The Media Archive

CHRT on Michigan Radio: More changes needed for Michigan’s COVID-19 response in nursing homes

In a New report suggests more changes needed for Michigan’s COVID-19 response in nursing homes, Michigan Radio journalist Will Callan talks with CHRT Founding Executive Director Marianne Udow-Phillips about a CHRT report published in September, 2020 that examines “how Michigan’s health department could better manage COVID-19 in nursing homes.”

The report, Keeping nursing home residents safe and advancing health in light of COVID-19, compares Michigan’s COVID-19 response to similar efforts in other states, and makes a number of recommendations, including providing additional support for nursing home staff with more training resources and extra pay.

Callan’s discussion with Udow-Phillips also focuses on the report’s finding that nursing homes that had strong relationships with local hospitals did a better job of controlling infections. “But not all nursing homes have that,” said Udow-Phillips. “So we are recommending strengthening and formalizing those relationships.”

READ THE ARTICLE

MDHHS shares CHRT’s key analytic findings, recommendations for keeping nursing home residents safe in light of COVID-19

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) created regional nursing home hubs with the goal of more safely handling COVID-19 patient discharges from hospitals. MDHHS asked CHRT to evaluate the regional nursing home hub approach and to recommend additional strategies to prepare for a potential second wave of COVID-19.

A September 1 press release from MDHHS shares key preliminary findings and recommendations for keeping nursing home residents safe and advancing health in light of COVID-19.

CHRT’s full preliminary findings and recommendations are outlined in the September 1 presentation, Keeping nursing home residents safe and advancing health in light of COVID-19. According to CHRT’s report, the regional hub approach was implemented in a crisis situation, and it was a rational and suitable response to the influx. Even though additional information is required to make firm conclusions, preliminary data reveals the following:

There is little to no proof that COVID-19 is transmitted from hospital patients to nursing home residents in hub institutions.
Both hub and non-hub nursing institutions’ COVID-19 prevalence rates showed a positive correlation with county COVID-19 prevalence rates.
The community prevalence of COVID-19 was consistent with the correlation between staff infection rates and COVID-19 infection rates in nursing homes.

The presentation places special emphasis on practice and policy recommendations to guide future COVID-19 nursing home responses including process, policy, structural, and administrative practices.

Review the project description for additional details about the analytic team, scope, and methodology. Review the MDHHS press release for key findings from the CHRT analysis and recommendations from the state’s nursing home preparedness task force.

Use local doctors to promote mask use says Marianne Udow-Phillips in WLNS interview with Tim Skubick

Image of health professionals wearing masks

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is being advised by the former director of the state welfare department to use someone else to promote the mask use, instead of choosing sports icons.

Tim Skubick of WLNS interviewed Marianne Udow-Phillips, founding executive director of the Center for Health and Research Transformation (CHRT), for a segment about the recently released mask pitch by Michigan-based sports coaches.

“It was quite a coup for the [Michigan] governor to sign up well-known sports personalities like Michigan State University basketball coaches Tom Izzo and Suzy Merchant to encourage the use of masks,” said Skubick. “If it was up to Marianne Udow-Phillips, the former state welfare director during the Granholm administration, she would advise the governor to use local doctors.”

Skubick is referring to a recent study done by CHRT and the University of Michigan Department of Learning Health Sciences, which discovered that the people Michiganders trust most for COVID-19 information are their local doctors.

“I think that would be a great idea,” says Dr. Marianne Udow-Phillips. “I think if people heard from their own personal physicians, people they know and trust, that they have confidence in, that these health care persons would save lives and it would have a huge impact.”

READ THE ARTICLE

About half of Michiganders trust Whitmer, Faucic; 27 percent trust Trump reports Michigan Radio

Vector art of a politician Kate Wells, reporting for Michigan Radio, interviews Marianne Udow-Phillips for a segment on where Michiganders get COVID-19 information and which sources they trust most and least.

“I think the experience we’re seeing in the field, where people aren’t always wearing masks or where you see gatherings–is reflected in this data,” says Udow-Phillips, founding executive director of the Center for Health and Research Transformation. “I do believe a lot of it has to do with the conflicting information people are getting.”

Healthcare providers have been deemed the most trustworthy sources of COVID-19 information, says Wells, reporting on the survey results. Udow-Phillips says that’s an opportunity for public health officials to use providers as messengers.

“They could mobilize our health care providers to be giving more direct messages to their patients,” says Udow-Phillips. “I think that there’s a good reason why health care providers are more trusted. It’s because they have a personal relationship with their patients. And yet they’re not doing the outreach in terms of helping patients follow public health guidance. And so I think this survey really speaks to engaging our frontline health care providers, primary care physicians in particular, to be giving the public health messages.”

LISTEN TO THE SEGMENT

Coronavirus contact tracing faces increasing challenges as some Michigan residents are reluctant to participate

Cartoon of cell phone with finger pointing to red, End Call button

“Almost a third of Michigan residents would not be comfortable participating in contact tracing linked to cases of coronavirus, according to a new survey released this week by the University of Michigan,” writes Julie Mack for MLive. Mack is referring to a new report that shares findings from the latest Cover Michigan Survey by CHRT and the University of Michigan Department of Learning Health Sciences.

“Two-thirds being willing to engage is good, but not enough because contact tracing is very important to our ability to really mitigate the spread of the disease,” says Marianne Udow-Phillips, founding executive director of CHRT, who provided the background for the story.

“About 33% of survey respondents said they were not comfortable with using a phone or computer app to share symptoms with a local or state health department official; 27% said they were uncomfortable with sharing additional personal information to limit the spread of coronavirus, and 23% said they were uncomfortable with providing officials with names of “close contacts” who the patient may have infected,” reports Mack.

Mack notes the many challenges Michigan’s local public health departments have been facing with contact tracing, in spite of the fact that the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services now has 422 trained volunteers making calls for 16 of the state’s 45 local public health departments. “At this time we are attempting to contact 90% of all contacts within 24 hours and are reaching 60%,” says Lynn Sutfin, a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

Mack spoke with several local public health officers, as well, including those who are using the state contact tracing volunteers and those who are doing their own contact tracing. “Just having tracers isn’t enough,” said Mark Cheatham, health officer for the Mid-Michigan District Health Department. “Because of COVID denial, we increasingly run into people who won’t talk to us, won’t tell us who they have had contact with. So because of the hostility, we’re getting bogged down.”

Case investigations also are getting more complicated, said Lisa Peacock, a 2020 CHRT Health Policy Fellow and public health officer for the the Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department and the Health Department of Northwest Michigan. Peacock told MLive that her department “recently had 14 cases that involved 80 close contacts between them — all people that need to be notified of their potential exposure.”

READ THE ARTICLE

Cover Michigan Survey featured in MLive: Whitmer, Fauci among Michigan’s most-trusted sources on coronavirus

“Dr. Anthony Fauci and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer are the biggest sources of coronavirus information for Michigan residents and also among the most-trusted sources, according to a new survey released today by University of Michigan,” writes Julie Mack for MLive.

Mack is referring to a new brief, published by CHRT and the Department of Learning Health Sciences at the University of Michigan, that shares result from a representative survey of more than 1,000 Michiganders. The survey asked about where Michiganders acquire information about COVID-19, and how much they trust those sources of information.

Eighty percent of respondents stated that their healthcare professionals are the most-trusted sources, yet they do not receive information from them, according to Marianne Udow-Phillips, director of CHRT.

Marianne Udow-Phillips, who provided the background for the story, says several things are at work in Governor Whitmer’s high trust rating.

“[The governor] is very visible, and also very empathetic and her messages have been consistent. She has repeatedly emphasized that she is guided by science,” says Udow-Phillips. “I think what we’re seeing are governors in our country who are aligning with public health professionals are more trusted. People trust science. They do trust the professionals.”

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

CHRT and DHLS in Crain’s: The public trusts health care providers, but they aren’t getting enough information from them

“People trust health care providers, public health officials, and Governor (Gretchen) Whitmer more than many other sources when it comes to communicating important messages about COVID-19,” says Melissa Riba, CHRT’s director of research and evaluation, in a new Crain’s Detroit Business article by senior health care journalist Jay Greene. “But an overwhelming majority (74 percent) of respondents to the survey also said they are worried that Michiganders are less safe because of misinformation being spread about COVID-19,” reports Greene, sharing findings from CHRT’s most recent Cover Michigan Survey.

Some 80 percent of survey respondents reported that the COVID-19 information source they trust in their own healthcare provider, but less than half of the respondents reported receiving COVID-19 information from their healthcare provider.

“The public trusts health care providers, but they aren’t getting enough information from them,” Marianne Udow-Phillips told Crain’s. “That is an opportunity for health care providers to become a leading source of trusted information.”

The problem reports Greene, is that doctors and other healthcare providers don’t often provide direct information to their patients, a practice that Udow-Phillips says should change. Doctors could speak authoritatively of the benefits of wearing masks in public, a practice that all experts now agree can contribute to reducing community spread, Udow-Phillips told Crain’s. “My own health care provider hasn’t contacted me, saying, ‘You should be wearing a mask,'” she said. ‘It could help if they heard from their own doctor.”

Researchers concluded that to combat COVID-19 it is critical for the public to trust the information they receive. “But the disconnect between high trust and simultaneous low use of information sources will challenge public policymakers and health practitioners, requiring diligence in selecting the messengers, channels, and platforms that resonate best with Michigan residents as the state moves into the next phase of pandemic response,” researchers said.

READ THE FULL CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS STORY HERE

CHRT and DHLS in Crain’s Detroit: Two-thirds of Michiganders support contact tracing, cite privacy concerns

“More than two-thirds of Michiganders in a new survey said they would be willing to participate in COVID-19 contact tracing activities that include sharing personal information, people they came into contact with, or reporting symptoms to state or local health departments,” writes Jay Greene for Crain’s Detroit. “But about half of respondents expressed concerns about the privacy of their personal health information, with 37 percent saying they would not participate in a contact tracing effort because of it.”

Greene is referring to the recently published Cover Michigan Survey reports on trust in COVID-19 information sources and willingness to participate in contact tracing. Both reports are a collaboration between staff at CHRT and faculty and graduate students at the University of Michigan Department of Learning Health Sciences.

This survey emphasizes the significance of combining individual privacy concerns with public health requirements for developing efficient contact tracing programs. The report also discusses the importance of contact tracing in controlling the pandemic and the value of open communication regarding contact tracing to boost participation and foster trust.

Overall, the survey results provide useful information for public health experts and politicians to create contact tracing programs that are efficient and respect privacy.

READ THE ARTICLE

Iovan in Lansing State Journal: Lost health insurance during the coronavirus pandemic? Here are your options

“You’re living during an unprecedented coronavirus pandemic, and you just lost your employer-sponsored health insurance. What do you do?” writes Kristan Obeng in today’s Lansing State Journal. Obeng quotes Samantha Iovan, a senior analyst at CHRT, in her guidance for Michiganders.

“We are fortunate we have expanded Medicaid coverage in our state,” says Iovan, who believes many Michiganders who lose their jobs will be eligible. After a job loss, Michiganders have 60 days to apply for Medicaid health insurance coverage through Healthcare.gov. If they miss that window, they may have to wait until open enrollment begins on November 1, 2020.

READ THE STORY

Udow-Phillips in Bridge Magazine: Here’s what Michigan nursing homes that escaped coronavirus did right

nursing home nurse holding a thermometer

Nursing homes that escaped the virus “took COVID-19 very seriously from day one,” Marianne Udow-Phillips, CHRT’s founding executive director, tells Patricia Anstett in “Here’s what Michigan nursing homes that escaped coronavirus did right.” Anstett’s Bridge Magazine story focuses on the practices these facilities employed to protect their residents from the pandemic.

“Consumers and their families need to ask assisted living facilities about the volume of COVID-19 cases and deaths; how often residents and staff are tested; whether a facility has adequate PPE, and their policies for visitation and delivery, “especially going into the fall’’ when the virus may resurge again,” Udow-Phillips says in the piece.

Another important practice, she says, is collecting data that will help us understand “whether the nursing home quality metrics measured by Medicare or others are sufficient to judge which homes have good track records for staying infection-free. Current yardsticks tend to identify “process measures, not outcomes, in healthcare,” she said, tallying things like adherence to medication administration, or the use of restraints.”

READ HERE’S WHAT MICHIGAN NURSING HOMES THAT ESCAPED CORONAVIRUS DID RIGHT

News