The leaders of Chattanooga hospitals - especially Erlanger's - and other local medical officials are doing this region a tremendous disservice as this novel coronavirus crisis begins to unfold. With their lack of transparency, these health care leaders are sowing distrust at a time when we need to have faith in the institutions that stand behind our dedicated doctors, nurses, lab techs and housekeepers.
The transparency we're talking about is not just about money - taxpayers', insurers' and our own - it's also about planning, preparedness and even potential coronavirus policy. First let's talk about transparency for the real-people aspect of planning, preparedness and policy.
* Confidence issue No. 1 - Neither Hamilton County nor our hospitals have yet set up a public drive-through coronavirus testing line while other cities in Tennessee reportedly have done so.
* Confidence issue No. 2 - Neither Hamilton County nor the hospitals have directly answered questions about this. Instead, they suggest that we contact our primary health care providers and look at the hospitals' websites.
* Confidence issue No. 3 - On those websites, deflection is again the name of the game. Erlanger's says, "Visit the CDC website for more information regarding testing as well as their Coronavirus Self-Checker." It goes on to say, in bold print, "the Coronavirus test is not available to the general public on request" and "individuals" will need an evaluation by a health care provider, urgent care center, or emergency room before a test is ordered. "At this time, UT Family Practice is only an assessment site [testing site] for Erlanger staff."
There may be good reasons why the tests are not widely available, but the hospital should explain why this is to the public.
CHI Memorial's website invites us to "engage with our symptom checker chat box" or "start a virtual urgent care visit" if we have mild or moderate symptoms "using the coupon code COVID19."
HCA Parkridge's website never mentions coronavirus testing at all. In the frequently asked questions section under the heading, "What should I do if I get a fever?" is this advice for those also with a cough, difficulty breathing or who have travelled to an area affected by the current strain of coronavirus: "Please let your physician know immediately."
Traveling is no longer the only factor in contracting COVID-19 in our tri-state region. Georgia topped 2,000 cases Friday morning and Tennessee cases tally more than 1,000.
* Confidence issue No. 4 - Our local county health news conference in which we've been receiving new information in recent days about local coronavirus numbers on Thursday became just an online news statement. And later Thursday in North Georgia, Catoosa County, which borders Chattanooga, announced a Friday live-streamed online forum to help answer community questions.
But our hospitals - which have been speaking publicly only through one spokeswoman (the head of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Medical Society) - declined to participate despite being invited and advertised as taking part. Reason? "Currently, Erlanger, CHI Memorial, and Parkridge representatives are unable to fulfill the majority of media requests. Our resources and contacts are tirelessly meeting the demands and communication needs related to emergency preparedness, facility operations, employee safety, and patient care. Due to the nature of this pandemic, protocols, plans and policies continue to change day-by-day, sometimes hour-by-hour." The statement referred us all again to the hospital websites.
Hospital officials later said that statement should not have been sent to media outlets because the media policy was still in draft form. Several physicians and an administrator from Memorial did participate in the online forum.
Now let's talk about the money aspect of transparency.
* Confidence issue No. 5 - On Thursday, Erlanger announced the good news that our public hospital had secured a $50 million line of credit to help with the COVID-19 pandemic. It is indeed a welcomed tool to give the region's level 1 trauma hospital flexibility since it is unclear how or when hospitals will receive some of the $100 billion of a Senate-passed bill for facilities across the country.
The Erlanger board of trustees on Thursday night met via teleconference for a regularly scheduled monthly meeting, but didn't allow a Times Free Press reporter - health reporter Elizabeth Fite - to participate, saying that there were not enough conference lines available. Fite went to a county office to listen in on a line there - along with an Erlanger spokesperson and another local reporter.
After approving the line of credit, Erlanger board chairwoman Linda Moss Mines led trustees into a closed executive session "based on quality and peer review" to discuss other matters related to COVID-19. Although the agenda had Dr. James Bolton, Erlanger chief of staff, and Erlanger CEO Will Jackson slated to speak, neither returned to give their reports to the public. The spokesperson said the meeting adjourned after the closed session.
Mines later told Fite that the public hospital's lack of transparency is a product of the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19: "The thing that's so difficult about all this is we don't know. We know what we need. We know what we're hoping and praying for, and that's that we will not follow the curve that we've seen in other countries and states."
Is it possible that our hospital leadership teams just cannot be bothered to answer any questions? Not even questions about little things, like how many of their licensed beds now are occupied? Or how many ventilators they have? What are their procedures on testing? Or how about a big question: How well are they prepared for a surge in cases? Is the competition among them so fierce they cannot cooperate?
The utter arrogance of our health leaders' actions this week - their blatant refusals to participate in public information systems - is unacceptable.
If they won't offer the public adequate information, why should we expect they could plan to offer us adequate treatment?