The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over. But at least healthcare professionals, hospitals, and laboratories have gotten a reprieve from the 24/7, life-or-death patient care situations that inundated their facilities during the three years of the pandemic. And that reprieve has given health professionals an opportunity to reflect on their response to COVID-19.
“We all learned how capable we are,” says Brian Rubin, MD, PhD, FASCP, Chair of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. “We learned that we can quickly mobilize a lot of expertise when challenged and respond to the greatest medical challenges of our time. We learned to be fearless when it comes to new tests and that we can really stretch ourselves in every conceivable way when we are challenged.”
Dr. Karen Kaul, CEO of North Shore University Health System, notes that many laboratories are still “putting themselves back together following the pandemic. We are still plagued by staffing shortages, burnout, supply chain issues, and more.”
“On the bright side,” she adds, “the value of the laboratory is better recognized in many institutions, and perhaps this will translate into awareness with more people considering careers in the laboratory. Most laboratory cultures remain very positive, supportive and dedicated to helping each other, our hospitals, and our patients.”
Dr. Kaul and Dr. Rubin are among more than a dozen prominent pathologists and medical laboratory leaders from around the country who were featured in ASCP’s 2022 documentary,
Against All Odds. The documentary highlighted the extraordinary, behind-the-scenes roles of pathologists and laboratory professionals as they battled to save the lives of COVID-19 patients and others during the pandemic.
Several of these institutions, such as the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, and the University of Nebraska Medical Center, were at the epicenter of the pandemic. In Against All Odds, these health systems’ leaders provided insights on the lessons that their laboratories learned from the pandemic.
“We need better surveillance, having in place communications and cooperation with the agencies, hospitals, laboratories, public health laboratories, and the large reference laboratories so we can maximize our testing capacity,” says Anne Walsh Feeks, MS, PA(ASCP)CM, chief operating officer for Ambulatory Operations at Stony Brook Medicine, Stony Brook, New York.
Dr. Rubin adds, “Laboratories are definitely better prepared in many ways for major public health crises, in all the ways we in the lab business can control. However, I doubt that public health services are any better prepared and, as a nation, we haven't yet set up the kinds of things that will help, like warehouses full of protective equipment and gear. I do think we need more forums to work with public health officials and government officials to obtain funds and plan in case we have another pandemic, which as we just learned, will come out of nowhere and will always be right around the corner.”
The pandemic served as a catalyst that sparked a need for improved communication between healthcare and federal agencies.
“We still have a lot to do to be better positioned for the next pandemic,” NorthShore’s Dr. Kaul says. “The medical laboratory hopes for better connections with our public health system, as hospital laboratories are very much on the front line of any crisis or pandemic. Additionally, pending legislation regarding testing oversight may further limit what laboratories can do in a public health emergency.”
During the pandemic, ASCP was in direct communication with policy makers at the White House and decision makers at the National Institutes of Health. The Society developed policies to address laboratories’ needs during the pandemic, which were directed to leaders at the federal, state, and local levels. Many were enacted into law.
Yet improving the laboratory’s connection to the public health system is going to take time. One thing is certain—this will not be the last pandemic. When the next one comes, the world must be ready, and pathology and laboratory medicine must play a critical role when that happens.
“I'd like to see a national / international plan to get ready for the next pandemic,” Dr. Rubin says. “That will require dedicated resources from governments. Pathologists and diagnostic labs should play a major role in making this plan, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state and federal public health departments and the federal government.”
To view the documentary, Against All Odds, click
here.
