How would you say the pandemic has had the biggest impact on Trinity from a financial, operational or staffing standpoint?

We call the pandemic a six-act play. We had the first impact, then a summer when it looked like we had it under control, and then a bad winter. Then the vaccine came out and we thought we were getting better. Then delta and omicron appeared. So, until recently, we’ve been in what we call Act 5, which is two surges, variants, and probably the worst impact of the pandemic.

But we’re now entering what we call Act 6. I call it Emergence 2.0. What we really focus on is how to advance and transform our ministries to deal with the new world we face, not to resurrect the past. The people, the impact on our colleagues, the impact on services, the mix of services and how we deliver those services have all changed. Finally, there is the impact on the demand for value.

When would you consider a COVID-19 epidemic? What does Act 6 look like from a Trinity perspective?

While we very much hope that we are now in the epidemic phase, the reality is that we have to be wary of new variants and the impact they may have on us. We now have more access to treatment and more access to testing. We provide medicines to people who end up seriously ill. So it’s all hopeful. But only 70% are fully vaccinated, so anything can happen.

At Trinity Health, we did come up with four things in Appearance 2.0. The first is to continue supporting the community as we move from epidemic to epidemic. The second is to support our colleagues. The third is to double down on patient/member focus: treating people as members of our health system, keeping them safe, but also really paying attention to their needs. And then the fourth one is about growth.

You are investing in programs like home hospitals and bringing this care directly to your patients. Will there be any shift in these initiatives as we move into the new normal?

Trinity has always played an important role in home care. In terms of PACE, we are the second largest provider of PACE in the country, as well as in long-term care services. We’re doing a lot of telehealth with people at home, and we’re moving those initiatives at a very fast pace. We see programs like Home Care and PACE as our huge growth areas because we care about families.

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You joined 13 other health systems to create Truveta and use data to improve patient care. What made you decide to get involved?

Health systems like ours and others that have joined Truveta are really a treasure trove of clinical data and financial data that can be used to really understand the correlations between the care we provide, the demographics of the people who are treated at a very macro level. service and opportunity for the best results. We think it’s important to be part of a national effort like this, to be able to have the data, to be able to mine it and make a transformational change in delivering the right care at the right time and with the right resources. Also supporting people as we respect diversity and its impact on health.