Five years ago today, after more than 118,000 COVID-19 cases in 114 countries and 4,291 related deaths were reported, the World Health Organization declared a pandemic. According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention timeline, the first case of 2019 novel coronavirus in the U.S. was confirmed with a lab test less than two months earlier, on Jan. 20, 2020. 

At that time, WorkCare’s occupational health professionals were poised for action. We put other initiatives on hold and redirected resources as part of our mission to protect and promote employee health. It was both a challenging and rewarding time for our team. 

We rapidly deployed providers to check employees’ temperatures before entering the workplace and negotiated with global companies to obtain diagnostic tests when they became available. We obtained specimens from “essential workers” and created strategies to support on-site and remote operations and help sustain productivity.  

When vaccines were developed, we created opportunities for employees to easily get their shots. For the duration of the pandemic, we sponsored weekly webinars featuring WorkCare occupational health physicians with updates on evolving developments, including the latest research on personal protection and industrial hygiene, viral variants, vaccine efficacy, and ways to manage the physical and mental health consequences of social isolation. 

Fast Forward to Today 

At the start of the pandemic, some members of the public were hesitant to use virtual care options. However, with the COVID-19 shutdown, people were discouraged from visiting a local hospital, clinic, or their doctor’s office unless it was clinically necessary. Online telehealth and telemedicine encounters soon became the best way to “see” a provider in a timely manner.  

In a COVID-19 Telehealth Impact Study, the MITRE Corporation and Mayor Clinic reported on trends using a dataset of over 2 billion healthcare claims covering more than 50 percent of private insurance activity in the U.S. from January 2019 to December 2020. The study also included results from a July-August 2020 provider survey and a November 2020-February 2021 patient survey. The results confirmed rapid and widespread adoption of telehealth applications. Among the findings: 

• Providers and patients expressed high levels of satisfaction with telehealth applications 

• 75 percent of providers indicated that telehealth enabled them to provide quality care 

• 84 percent of patients agreed that the quality of their telehealth visit was good 

These and other findings validated what we already knew based on WorkCare’s years of experience providing Incident Intervention, our telehealth triage program for work-related injuries, illnesses, and physical discomfort at onset. With a simple phone call to our telehealth triage team, an employee receives an immediate evaluation of symptoms and care guidance from an occupational health nurse. In some cases, the employees may consult with a WorkCare occupational physician and/or an injury prevention specialist with training in sports medicine and ergonomics.  

When care guidance beyond first aid is needed or an employee requests a visit with a local medical provider, we can offer a telemedicine visit with a WorkCare doctor as an alternative to an off-site clinic visit for further diagnosis and treatment in certain jurisdictions. Not surprisingly, employee receptivity to these options has become even greater after experiencing the convenience of telehealth options for personal and family care during the pandemic.  

At WorkCare, we continue to leverage valuable post-pandemic lessons across our enterprise – from scheduling required respiratory protection exams for covered employees with qualified local providers, to providing on-site clinic staffing and health promotion programs, to conducting virtual ergonomic consultations with employees who work remotely to help reduce musculoskeletal injury risk. We’ve got it covered.