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COVID-19: Ready to be a COVID Consultant? 6/25 · The SHEA Podcast

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the Rapid Response Podcast, brought to you by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, Shay, promoting the prevention of healthcare associated infections and antibiotic resistance and seeking to advance the field of healthcare epidemiology and antibiotic stewardship.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: I am Dr.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: David Bannock from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, and I'll serve as today's podcast moderator.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: Discussion on the podcast does not reflect Jay's perspective, but facilitates communication of multiple perspectives and experiences as we go through this challenging time together.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: Jay is excited to launch the 19th episode of this podcast, COVID-19 updates, what we know now.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: Today's episode will focus on COVID-19 with attention to the role of the healthcare epidemiologist in consultation.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: Our speakers today are Dr.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_02: Cindy Prinz, the Clinical Associate Professor from the University of Florida, and Dr.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: Judy Guzman Coutrell, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases and the School of Medicine at Oregon Health and Science University.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for joining us today.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: I would like to turn it over to Dr.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_02: Prinz to get us started with a brief news and guidance update from the week.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: As of this recording, there are almost 9.3 million cases of COVID-19 worldwide, with 2.3 million cases and over 120 deaths in the U.S.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Cases are increasing in several states as phased reopenings continue.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: An article by Calderwood et al.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: in HU this week looked at responses from a survey of the SHA Research Network conducted in April about conditions and challenges faced during that early stage of the pandemic.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Assessment of PPE among respondents showed only 45% of facilities reporting respirator levels that were adequate for the current situation, and only 40% reported having gown levels that were adequate for the situation.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: 71% of those facilities with limited or crisis level respirator supplies were practicing extended respirator use, and almost 60% of those with limited to crisis level gown supplies were practicing extended use or reuse of gowns.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Reprocessing of respirators was reported by half of all respondents.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: One-third were using vaporized hydrogen peroxide, 16% were using UV light, and 4% were using ethylene oxide.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: More key findings related to the self-production of supplies, testing, and ethical guidance are highlighted in the June 23rd pressure release.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: A news story in Nature this week highlighted SARS-CoV-2 studies that have been conducted in organoids or miniature lab-grown organs to better understand virus invasion of organs and to test potential treatments.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: In the lungs, scientists and the Takayama Research Group at Kyoto University in Japan have shown that SARS-CoV-2 mainly targets basal cells, while the Chen research group at Well Cornell Medicine in New York have shown that cell death after infection elicits production of chemokines and cytokines that can potentially lead to cytokine storm.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Studies are ongoing in these respective groups to determine the pattern of virus spread in the lungs and the cause of cell death.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: An organized study by Montel et al.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: showed that SARS-CoV-2 can affect the endothelium, enter the blood, and circulate to other areas of the body.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, the MMWR released a report this week of possible indirect effects of COVID-19 on emergency department visits for acute life-threatening conditions.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: During the 10 weeks following the U.S.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: declaration of COVID-19 as a national emergency, there was a 42% overall decline in ED visits, with a 23% decline in visits for myocardial infarction, a 20% decline in visits for stroke, and a 10% decline in visits for hyperglycemic crisis from the period immediately before the emergency declaration.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: The decline in visits for these acute life-threatening conditions could possibly be attributed to fear of acquiring COVID-19 in the ED, stay-at-home orders, and recommendations to avoid accessing health care for conditions that were not urgent.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you very much, Dr.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_02: Prince, for that update.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: I'd like to now transition into the discussion with Dr.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: Guzman Kudrill.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: So, first off, thank you, Dr.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: Guzman Codrill, for joining us today.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_02: We wanted to focus today's discussion on a slightly different topic.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: This is an opportunity to kind of talk about how to utilize the expertise of the healthcare epidemiologist as a consultant.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_02: During COVID-19, we've had a lot of opportunities to sort of expand our domain outside of the traditional role in our own hospitals and work collaboratively with other types of facilities.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_02: I know you have a lot of expertise in this area and a lot of experience that you can share with us.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm really grateful that you're able to join us on this podcast.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm excited that you guys chose this topic as a podcast discussion as well.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: I can say that many friends and colleagues across the country have contacted me individually saying, hey, you know, I'm just got a request to do some consulting for, you know, ex business in my own community.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: And is this something that can be done?
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: So hopefully this podcast will shed some light for everyone on that question.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think that's a really important point.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of us have been approached by individuals, by groups outside of our own organizations.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: And this is new to a lot of us.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, we have the expertise in the science, in clinical care, and we want to be able to use that expertise to help others.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: Can you maybe uh speak a little bit on your own experiences?
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: And you've been doing consultation work in areas of infectious disease and infection prevention for a while.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe if you can give the listeners some background into sort of how you got started on this, and we can get into a little bit more detail on sort of where it's gone, and then more specifically the potential role that the consultant in infection prevention has.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: I started my infection prevention consulting business back in 2015.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: At that time, there was a large influx of federal funds down to state health departments, including every state's HAI prevention program.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: These funds were specifically earmarked for Ebola preparedness because 2015, of course, was during the West African Ebola outbreak.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: So, as luck would have it, this was actually also the same time that I stepped away from my past position, serving as the hospital epidemiologist of my children's hospital where I still work clinically.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I had been the director of infection control for that program for about 11 years when I stepped away from that role.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, literally a few days after I announced that I was leaving that position, the Oregon State Public Health Department's HAI program manager contacted me.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: He let me know about these federal funds that were coming to Oregon to help with the bowl of preparedness, and he asked if I was interested in helping at the state level through public health.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: And these funds were through a CDC ELC grant, which is epidemiology and lab capacity grant.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: And this is really the main funding source for most state HAI prevention programs.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: So, in a moment's notice, I had to decide how I was going to accept this position.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: It was what I love to do.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: It was still doing infection prevention, but in a very different way as a consultant.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I talked and texted with a lot of friends very quickly, including some who do non-healthcare consulting.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I realized that creating a consulting business actually was not that difficult to do.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I talked to some colleagues at the State Health Department, and they said, Oh, we actually have many contracted consultants that do all different types of work for us.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I knew that that was going to be feasible.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: So I did it.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: And the timing was really incredible for me when those funds came from the federal government down to the state.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: And it's really just been kind of my main model or my main largest contracts for consulting over the past five years or through public health.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: Great.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: Sounds like a really great opportunity to kind of pivot and transition and use your expertise in infection prevention.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_02: So you mentioned that you know, in your situation, I've kind of originated from Ebola related funding.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_02: And presumably a lot of the work that you've been doing has been in the area of emerging infectious diseases.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_02: But can you give some specific examples of the types of activities that you've done in your consultation work with the state HAI program or even outside of that program?
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: So as you mentioned, the vast majority of my consulting is with my state health department.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: So as a contracted consultant, I served as the state's medical director of Ebola preparedness for four years.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: And again, that funding was really all supported by the federal grant that my state's HAI program received.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: In that role, I worked directly with all of Oregon's Ebola assessment hospitals across the state.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: And it was really very fun work.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: I helped each hospital's infection prevention and diagnostic lab teams mitigate any gaps that were identified during on-site readiness assessments.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: I got to work with EMS to create safe transportation plans for people under investigation.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's a really interesting group of people, EMS, Fire and Rescue.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we always joke that they're kind of like a motorcycle gang.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: They're all really tough and sometimes they like to do what they want to do, but they really always get the job done.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: And now I'm great colleagues and friends with all of them.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: Currently, I'm a contracted consultant now, as you would expect, on Oregon's COVID-19 response team.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: The type of work that I've been doing now is actually not just HAI work with COVID, you know, as it is everywhere right now, it's all hands on deck.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: So my contract basically is very general.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: It says, you know, that I will support their COVID response.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: So currently I serve on a team of what are called senior health advisors.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: So these are all public health physicians who we huddle, you know, Monday through Friday at 10 a.m.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: and 3 p.m.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: And we basically at 10 a.m.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: have a list of work that needs to get done that day related to COVID.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: We divide up the work, we volunteer, you know, what pieces of the work we're gonna do, and then huddle again in the afternoon and see what other new tasks have come in.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: So it's been a really busy time writing guidance documents.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: I also am oftentimes assigned to review the literature.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we're all always reviewing the literature.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: Some days it feels hard to keep up with the literature.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so oftentimes I will actually volunteer to be a lit reviewer because, of course, I'm still also a part-time clinical ID physician.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: So doing that work is going to help me on both sides, obviously.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: Outside of public health, I I've had you know different kinds of shorter term contracts in consulting.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: I've done some infection prevention consulting for professional sports teams on infection prevention back with H1N1 and now again with COVID-19.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: I've done some consulting in the past with uh startup companies.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: And also that's another, I think, big opportunity for ID physicians who do infection prevention and healthcare epidemiology, is you know, we do have to rely on innovation.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes the people who are coming up with these innovations don't work in healthcare settings.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: So it's, I think, a really important role for us with our expertise to be a you know clinical subject matter expert as a consultant to startup companies when they say, Oh, we've created this new gadget, and then you know, you talk to them about it and you tell them, oh, you know, I can think of ways that this actually can be really helpful for preventing infections in the healthcare setting.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: And it seems like you know, really simple work for us because this is what we do every day, but for the inventor on the other side, you know, they don't know the workflows in the healthcare setting.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: So that can be really, you know, I think important work also.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: It's really interesting to hear, you know, how you bring your clinical expertise into these other types of environments.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I think in COVID-19, a lot of us are approached by various entities that we may not necessarily be comfortable with.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of us are very accustomed to working in hospitals and even like in academia.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_02: But when we start talking about interacting with the private sector, you know, businesses that are approaching us, I think some of us can find that intimidating.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: But I think that the COVID-19 experience has really highlighted the importance of us to lend our expertise to these other areas.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: So when you think about your experiences working with these other groups, how do you try to position yourself and how would you kind of pitch your expertise in a way that is appealing to these individuals who may not be as familiar with infection prevention and infectious disease?
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think we all take our expertise for granted because, you know, I think most of us in infection prevention and I mean, even I think in ID, we're all very similar in the way that we think.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: We're all very practical thinkers, and that's why, you know, that I love the t-shirts that Shay made a couple years ago, keep calm and call the hospital epidemiologist.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's a major strength for our role in the healthcare setting is to be calm and just think things through in a very simple method.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, infection prevention touches everyone, every sector of any type of business.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so a lot of these simple, to us, they seem simple and obvious uh pieces of knowledge like transmission-based precautions, cleaning and disinfection, all of these types of things, you know, those are important in really, you know, occupational health, you know, infection prevention is a huge part of occupational health.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: So when I talk to businesses or someone from a business who is interested in hiring me as a contracted consultant, I use those kind of examples in whatever setting that they're asking me to work.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know, outbreak investigations, I mean, all of the work that we did with the um ORTP, you know, a lot of that is communication.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: So all those communication skills that you use as a healthcare epidemiologist, you can also use those when you're trying to pitch your strengths and the offerings you have as a consultant to all of these businesses.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: When I started doing it, I thought, oh my gosh, you know, am I even offering a service that's needed?
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: And the more I've been doing this, I keep thinking, gosh, I need more friends to be doing consulting as well.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a need, and when you start talking to people who aren't in healthcare, it's it's quite easy to convey how you can be helpful to them.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's terrific advice.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: You know, Shea and has these great communication tools, and I think that the ability to communicate in sort of a calming way is so critical.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I often find that groups will reach out to us often when there's a problem, almost exclusively when there's a problem.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um so everything from uh, you know, Ebola preparedness, the COVID-19 response, sometimes in situations where there's an outbreak.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_02: So there's usually some problem and a lot of anxiety by the time groups reach out to us.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_02: I think having that kind of reassuring approach, we have experience working through these kinds of situations, we know how to help with preparations and mitigation.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I think highlighting that is really the best way to go to is well received.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: And so just going back to something you mentioned a little bit earlier when you were talking about your experience.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_02: You mentioned a few things that some of us in clinical infectious diseases are particularly uncomfortable with.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_02: Things like contracts and accounts.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_02: These are areas that are outside of our comfort zone.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_02: And working as a consultant, we have to be thinking about that.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, it's uh sort of the practical parts of consultation work.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: So I was hoping maybe you could share some advice or some experience on how to think about things like how to develop a contract, how to begin essentially a business, uh, which is something that a lot of us um haven't had any experience with.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so when I started consulting five years ago, I actually got a lot of really great advice from my accountant.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: I called him and said, I'm gonna start doing consulting on the side as a, you know, as my own work.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: He guided me with how to register my business with the state.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: So I had to create a business.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: So the name of my consulting business is Infection Prevention Consulting of Oregon, LLC, Limited Liability Corporation.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just me.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have any, I don't have any employees, although every once in a while I honestly, you know, I turn down work.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: The one other nice thing about being a part-time consultant and being a part-time clinical physician is I have uh really great control of my time spent working and my time spent not working.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: But he guided me how to register my business with the state.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: So I did that online.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: He guided me on setting up a separate business account for tax purposes and all of that.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: So that was really helpful because you know, most accountants work with people who are small business owners, and that's what I am now.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a small business owner.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: I have a longtime attorney, friend, who actually was one of the attorneys in my hospital's risk management department.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: So, of course, I'm sure you know you've worked with your hospital risk management people when there's an exposure, an outbreak in your healthcare setting.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: So I took her out to dinner one night and I told her I was leaving my role as the hospital epidemiologist, but I still wanted to do infection prevention consulting.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: And and you know, she gave me great guidance on liability.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so she actually helped me find an insurance company that that provides general liability insurance for private consultants like me.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: So that was really helpful.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I, you know, I definitely leaned on a lot of friends outside of healthcare also when I started my business.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: I have a good friend who has her own consulting business.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, she's not in healthcare at all, but her consulting is writing grants for nonprofits, and she works for all sorts of nonprofits around the city, getting grants for them so that they can do good work.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: So she showed me what her contracts look like, and I adapted those as my own.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: When I do a contract with a new business, oftentimes I'll ask them, Do you have a contract that you use for consultants?
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: Oftentimes they do.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, I can go both ways.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: I have a very simple template for contract work also that I have, and I'll use that too sometimes.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: I created my own business website, which actually wasn't too hard to do on my own, and I maintain that website as well.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know, in a nutshell, I got a lot of good advice from from several friends in my life and in my work also, and it's all really worked out.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: I think when I do hear from colleagues across the state that are doing some consulting on the side, they always ask, you know, how do I know how much to charge?
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I always tell my colleagues, don't underestimate the value of your expertise.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: We went to school for a long time, we've done a lot of training.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, I don't like talking about exact number of dollars, but you should make sure that the value that you're providing is reflected in your hourly rate.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think one other important point that I do want to make for those who are considering doing some outside consulting is I think it is important to talk to your employer at the hospital about doing consulting.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, physicians do all sorts of consulting and work on the side, of course.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, some people do legal consulting.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: I don't do that type of work.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: I focus on infection prevention because that's what I love to do and what I'd love to help people on.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not something that's completely impossible for people who are doing infection prevention for their healthcare setting.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: But I think it's an important discussion to have.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I maintain that as reported as my business, as outside work annually when I have to, you know, when all of us as physicians, faculty members have to report the work that we're doing to our primary employers.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's important too.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's a lot of great advice.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_02: You know, certainly uh we as a whole, I feel like, tend to undervalue our expertise to others.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we we often feel dedication to our patients, to our hospitals, and I think that lends itself sometimes to undervaluing our own expertise when we lend it to others.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_02: But I think that's a really important point.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_02: And then totally agree that engaging with partners who can help us with some of the accounting aspects, and then collaborating with other businesses to learn from their experiences in the small business domain that a lot of us are not familiar with can be really helpful.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_02: I think uh they can offer a lot of guidance.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I just had a couple other questions that I wanted to hear your reflections on.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_02: So having gone through this now for almost a decade, can you think of some lessons that you've learned along the way?
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_02: Or if you had to give one piece of guidance to the listeners on how to transition to this consultant role or potentially develop one if you've already started, reflecting on your own experiences, is there one lesson that uh you think we can take away from it?
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard to choose one lesson learned because I feel like there's so many, but I can definitely say that my biggest benefit I see as being a consultant outside of the healthcare setting is that, well, I can say doing infection prevention as a physician consultant as opposed to being a hospital epidemiologist in the hospital.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I did that before I was doing this as a consultant.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: I can say that I feel like my daily work is impactful, you know, and it was when I was working in the hospital setting too, but I don't waste my time in meetings all day like I used to.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like my work is so much more efficient than it used to be, which means that I have a lot more time for myself and my family.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: And since my infection prevention consulting work is through the health department, one of my biggest, I think my loves for how I've positioned my work now is that I feel like my impact goes beyond one hospital.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: My expertise can improve infection prevention strategies for several hospitals across the state.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: Some of these hospitals are so rural and they're critical access hospitals that they don't even have an option to have an ID physician come and much less see a patient, you know, to help them with their infection prevention strategies.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really rewarding work.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, it's always fun to meet new people who have the same goal to decrease HAIs in their patients, but you know, people who I've never worked with before, both in public health and in the clinical setting.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think some areas that are ripe right now for listeners who are really considering how I can lend my expertise.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think we all know long-term care facilities are major hotspots for COVID-19 transmission and for outbreaks.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that would be an area where we could make a huge difference.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: I also wanted to mention that similar to the great timing back in 2015 when I started doing consulting.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: Now there's again a large, large sum of federal funds that have been sent to every state to respond to COVID-19.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: The current pandemic makes it an ideal time to be a clinical consultant of public health.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: They have been tasked with a lot of work.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: So I would really encourage both hospital epidemiologists, ID physicians, and a nurse infection preventionist that if you're considering doing any type of consulting to contact your state health departments or your local jurisdictions to see if you can help as a contracted worker, including on a, you know, there's been again the same ELC grants that help with epidemiology and lab capacity for across the country.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of opportunity there for funding and for some new connections in HAI work.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_02: I think the breadth of impact that one can have in this type of role is tremendous.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: And that lends itself to a lot of personal and professional satisfaction.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_02: So thanks for kind of walking us through that.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_02: And thank you again for joining the podcast.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_02: We really appreciate your expertise and sharing your experience.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's my pleasure.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you again to Dr.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_02: Prinz and Dr.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_02: Guzman Kutrill for sharing your perspective and experiences.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_02: And a sincere thank you from Shay to all healthcare personnel for all that you are doing to respond to COVID-19.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_02: This podcast can be accessed on Shay's online education center, Learning CE, under the Rapid Response Program.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_02: You will also find additional resources such as the recorded webinars, healthcare facility outbreak preparedness, and the SHAY COVID-19 town halls.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_02: Additional resources available on Learning CE pertinent to this pandemic include the SHA CDC Outbreak Response Training Program, ORTP, and the prevention course in HAI Knowledge and Control, Prevention Check.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_02: That concludes today's episode of the Rapid Response Podcast.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for tuning in.