COVID-19 Safety News Briefs
May 1, 2020

Boston’s Center for Medical Simulation recognized early on that clinical teams would need something more than grit and determination to safely care for patients under the stresses that COVID-19 would inflict.

So the organization designed Circle Up, a framework for briefings and conversations that afford psychological support among clinical team members while enhancing their ability to adjust to rapidly changing protocols and new workflows. Briefings are held at the beginning and end of each shift, and co-workers continually watch for circumstances or individuals that call for personal attention.

Chris Roussin, a senior director at the Center for Medical Simulation, explains, “Circle Up features elements designed to promote psychological health first and then, through the support for psychological health, foster sustained high quality care and high quality adaptation in this very difficult moment.”

See the model (below) and read more about how to implement it here .
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Popular online meeting platforms, such as Zoom, are proving a quick, inexpensive way to communicate new protocols and policies. The influx of patients with COVID-19 to all care settings — hospitals, outpatient clinics, long-term care facilities and more — means that clinicians, managers and staff everywhere are adapting their approaches to care delivery, many of which will continue to undergo change as circumstances warrant. This video, from a team at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center , captures a modified approach to the transfer of a patient from labor and delivery to the operating room for a cesarean delivery when the patient is or is suspected of being COVID positive. Once created, a video can be easily shared with all staff who need to be informed of the new elements to an established workflow.