Good morning Joe!

For the Introductions- Total pts. Total Covid patients . Patients in ICU beds, Patients on Vents, # of Total deaths, Employees out, How full is your hospital and how is your staff is doing

Good morning everyone! Thank you for joining today.

At what point may you recommend another shutdown? Mike Mahoney KMBC?

Health philanthropy is grateful for the leadership of the Chamber, the business community, and our tireless healthcare workforce across the region

Independence has done more than 200 vaccines since Monday which is a big, big increase over prior weeks. Drop in clinic today from 12:30-4:30 at City Hall.

Mike— we want our communities to remain open and thriving. We will be talking the safest way to do that is through masking and vaccinations.

What exactly is Bed diversion?

will the recording of this be shared so that we can get this information to people not on this webinar?

Bed diversion historically has meant that the hospital is full and unable to accept transfers or ambulances. We now have high volume status but if a majority of hospitals are on high volume then all have to come off of high volume status. That is now happening daily.

What is the latest update on how long the vaccine will remain effective against the virus? Anything new on the possibility of needing a booster vaccine?

Where can we find written data on number of vaccinated v. non vaccinated inpatients to share to counter disinformation?

Shelby— we will address live later.

Dagmar— every hospital is working feverishly to get the staff needed to be at full capacity.

Thank you, Tim. Will you also be updating on us on the possibility of Pfizer reaching full FDA approval in early September?

We anticipate, from what we are hearing in the news, to hopefully have full FDA Pfizer approval in early September

Of the employees who are out of service, are all of them COVID positive or out due to contact tracing & exposure?

It’s probably intuitive, but with high volumes, high number of patients holding with orders, this also leads to high wait times in ERs

Is anyone having issues with the public becoming belligerent regarding masking and visitation policies?

Karin— can you help clarify as a percentage of what?

Employees out are a mix of positive and awaiting testing, but the majority of for being positive

Dagmar— I can’t speak for all hospitals but all I’m aware of are actively recruiting for all types of staff

Will all the of your health systems require employees to get vaccinated?

Hospitalization are a lagging indicator, correct? Implies the situation continues to grow worse? Accurate? Mike Mahoney KMBC

Mike—hospitalization is very much a lagging indicator and typically follows cases by a couple of weeks. And deaths a few weeks after that.

I heard one presenter mention a patient having other critical issues that are compromising is that true of most of these new cases or different from last spring

Please put the email in the chat to send questions/comments to the Chamber

Questions: info@kcchamber.com

What's the status / timing / recommendations for getting booster shots for those who have been vaccinated? Pfizer reports its vaccine loses effectiveness after 6 months. Many early vaxers are coming up on 6 months.

What facilities are mandating employees be vaccinated? Are facilities considering postponing elective procedures that require hospitalization?

I wish more attention would be given to the impact of people getting exposed (and then quarantined), getting ill and possibly dying from COVID-19 on business and our economy. A lot of people think that shut downs are the only thing that affects the economy but people getting sick is very disruptive.

is aCOVID patient responsible for their medical bills

What is being done to prevent the infected from entering our hospitals through successful therapies at home? I personally had a miraculous COVID 4-hour turnaround on the HCQ/Ivermectin cocktail. If we are concerned about maxing out our hospitals, what do we need to do to educate frontline healthcare providers on proven therapies?

Would the hospitals be willing to share aggregated information about the average hospital bills to patients for a COVID stay?

Insured patients are responsible for any co-pay or deductibles that may be applied to their individual plan. For uninsured patients, regardless of immigration status, we still have the opportunity to apply for reimbursement through the HRSA program for patients hospitalized for COVID treatment.

^^ Please address Dagmar’s question @ 9:36 am

Dr Stites speaks of a "lack of public health policy" Elaborate?

Is there a call to action from the CMOs for the region's employers?

Is there a need to mask outdoors as well?

Staffing is a challenge for early childhood programs and in our schools as well.

Can you define "outdoor crowded spaces" -- 1000 or 100?

Some other factors other than masking last fall/winter is lower numbers gathering in crowds, no kids in classrooms and overall social distancing. If mask mandates worked before then we shouldn't be afraid to set that in place again if these public pleas are not resulting in the majority masking and getting vaccinated. If we all want our kids in classroom, gathering with others, etc. then folks need to get vaccinated and mask up. PLEASE folks listen and take action.

I also would like this information in a shareable form to help justify our mask and vaccine policies

Kudos to our area CMOs for their leadership and for their single voice. It’s now up to the rest of us to make their guidance happen.

Current scientific data does not support use of HCQ or Ivermectin for prophylaxis or treatment of COVID-19

Is it normal for coronaviruses to produce so many variants at this frequency and how else can we prevent the development of a variant of high concern?

Donna-we will send a link of the recording about 30 minutes after we conclude.

I'm interested to see when health insurance companies begin passing more of the financial burden of COVID treatment towards people that choose not to be vaccinated. The precedent is there with people that smoke or go skydiving already.

The more a virus is transmitted, the more opportunity there is for mutation.

Well put about masking.....Great job!

We will make the link available after the program. It will be sent to all of you, and we'll (The University of Kansas Health System) likely place it on our website.

Appreciate TMC and VA leading on requiring employees to be vaccinated. Healthcare systems are some of our area's largest employers, and this sends a message not only about public health safety, but also sets a great example for other employers

The delta variant appears to transmit faster and with less distance than the original strain, so would recommend masking in shared spaces

Swiss cheese slide was very informative. love the visual! Thanks Dr. Hays!!!!!!

Apologies to all for not being able to keep up with all questions, but we will try to get additional information out/questions answered in the coming days.

In efforts to decrease bed occupancy has there been attempts to address behavioral health concerns by advertising behavioral health options available in the community such as cognitive behavioral health therapy? smartrecovery.org etc. Or advertising other resources such as https://www.aa.org/ in efforts to alleviate behavioral crisis.

For those organizations with a COVID vaccine mandate are you losing staff to organizations without a vaccine mandate?

At KU we are not seeing large numbers of non sick patients in our ER. Our acuity is high and very few non sick folks

This event has been recorded and everyone who registered will receive a link to the video. The KC Chamber will also be making the video available to others who were not able to attend.

Lawrence Memorial still has a drive-through for COVID testing. We also have our clinics performing rapid testing, as well as numerous other sites in the community.