Coronavirus and CNS Preventative/Protective Measures
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Emotional Resilience: Day 5

Emotional Resilience: Day 5

CNS Resilience Inspired the Pivot to Telehealth

In our Emotional Resilience series this week, we’ve sought the wisdom of CNS’ clinical expertise in helping you navigate the new normal. Personal resilience has been the focus. But organizations also face challenges that demand a surefooted pivot.

CNS is a case in point. As a neurorehabilitation provider, our response to COVID-19 required a nimble migration to telehealth to ensure patient and staff safety without compromising the quality of treatment.

In just eight days our six clinics in California and Texas shifted from traditional delivery of rehabilitation to providing all therapies via telehealth technology. It was a feat borne of leadership, clinical integrity, flexible thinking, and top to bottom teamwork. We succeeded and we’re proud of it.

Keeping patients safe was our first priority. Our leadership adapted guidelines and protocols from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and local health authorities. Next, we distributed internal and external communication on safety protocols to mitigate the spread of the virus. Families, patients, and insurers were updated frequently on adoption of strict measures we instituted.

Critical next steps were transitioning therapy delivery, which was accomplished with our HIPAA compliant, secure telehealth technology. Patients were transferred home and received the same quality rehabilitation they were getting at the clinic. Staff deftly carried on from their homes, providing core therapies. Patient and therapist utilized the patient’s home environment to replicate Occupational, Speech, Physical, and Educational therapy, along with counseling and physician/specialist oversite.

Patients made impressive strides. A surgeon who’d endured a stroke practiced suturing skills using an orange and dish towels from her kitchen, thanks to her forward-thinking Cognitive Rehabilitation therapist. An interior designer is practicing room layout plans so she can one day return to work. The full spectrum of rehabilitation is conveyed and directed by highly skilled clinicians and the home is an apt setting for building independence.

Using telehealth, therapists instruct patients in real time as they would in the clinic, offering support and guidance. They monitor success and record data to keep families and insurers informed. Such innovation is in our DNA and a crisis couldn’t deter our patient-centric ethic.

“We are Innovative” is a CNS belief and the success of telehealth is proof that our quick response to the COVID-19 crisis kept patients in rehabilitation. Providing intensive therapy continued to support the durability of outcome that has become a CNS legacy.