Thanksgiving Holiday Planning: Week of November 20th, 2020

Students, Faculty, Residents, Staff, Alumni, Board Members and Friends,

Good morning on a chilly Fall day from Elkins Park. It’s been another busy week around as we work to help keep everyone safe and healthy heading into the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

NEW GALLERY DISPLAY: To help keep spirits up, curator Elynne Rosenfeld has come up with another fabulous art display for the D’Arrigo Family Gallery outside the Bennett Lounge at the Hafter Student Community Center. Works from the recently formed Philadelphia Pastel Society (PSS) can be viewed through Dec. 17, 2020. If you’re on campus, stop by and take a look at the display – you won’t be disappointed! Read more about it here.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: This week’s “Where Are They Now” features Kelly Garcia, MS ‘19, a speech therapist at the Independence Charter School in Philadelphia. To read more about Kelly’s professional journey after graduating from Salus, go here.

THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY PLANNING: This is going to be a Thanksgiving holiday unlike most of us have ever experienced. Most years, the holiday is a time to connect with family and friends for good food, fun and fellowship. For some, it may be a difficult time, as we remember those we have lost or that returning home to family may not always be pleasant or welcomed for various reasons. When we think of all we have endured in 2020, and now, seeing increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases nationally and in our own region (see charts below), it may be more difficult to find a reason to be grateful. However, as you approach Thanksgiving, try to make the best of what I know is a stressful and challenging situation and reflect on all we do have to be thankful for – our health, our loved ones, our opportunities to help others and a brighter future ahead.

There will be temptations to see friends and family members you haven’t seen in a while during this short break. I would caution you not to take chances and to resist the temptation to gather, even in small groups.

To that end, consistent with the latest CDC guidance, I want to strongly encourage you not to travel during this holiday, as difficult as that might be. If you do, please ensure that you are taking all the necessary steps to maintain your health and safety as well that of as your family members and your classmates. That means wearing your face mask at home if you’re going to be with people not from your immediate circle (your immediate circle includes family members you live with, roommates and others you have regularly spent time with), social distancing of at least six feet, washing your hands frequently and maintaining maximum airflow in your house by opening windows, doors, etc. 

If you travel outside Pennsylvania, you need to be aware that beginning today, anyone who visits Pennsylvania from another state, including Pennsylvanians returning to the Commonwealth, must get tested within 72 hours prior to entering the Commonwealth. If you are unable or choose not to be tested, you are required to quarantine for 14 days upon returning to PA. The Commonwealth is expecting individuals to police themselves, which means that you would be unable to come to campus and would miss any scheduled face-to-face instruction.

AFTER THANKSGIVING BREAK: Below are enhancements that we are making to the Salus Safety Strategy designed to protect our community over the next two months.

December
Following Thanksgiving weekend, our academic programs have made adjustments to limit on campus instruction through winter break. While our clinics will remain open to serve our patients and clients and certain lab instruction will continue at Elkins Park, student activity on campus will be reduced. Your individual program will be in touch with these details. Please note, that there is an exemption from this restriction from the PA travel restriction for our students traveling in and out of Pennsylvania to “work” at their clinical sites.

Vaccine
You all have heard the good news concerning some of the vaccines currently be developed, which has been shown to be about 95 percent effective against the virus. While this is great news, an effective vaccine is still awaiting FDA approval and it will be several months after that before the vaccine is distributed to the public. Additionally, we will still need to take all the current precautions, such as continuing to wear a face mask for several months after receiving the vaccine to ensure there is no additional spread. While there is a light at the end of the tunnel, it’s imperative that we remain vigilant until we get there - which we will.

Winter Break
The Elkins Park campus and all Salus clinics will be closed from Thursday, December 24th through Sunday, January 3rd. Any essential staff that needs to work during this period will be informed by their supervisors. 

Return to Learn Testing
Following winter break, all students, laboratory educators, clinical educators and clinic staff will be required to be tested for COVID-19 prior to their return to campus or our clinics in January. We are partnering with LabCorp to provide Pixel at-home COVID-19 self-administered PCR tests by mail. Salus will make these tests available, at no cost to you, on or around December 28th via a secure web portal. Individuals will access the portal to order their test (which will be sent by overnight mail), take the test at home and then return the test via pre-paid overnight mail to LabCorp. Test results will be communicated to the individual and Salus 24-48 hours after receipt by LabCorp. A negative test result will be required to access campus or the clinics. Any positive tests will be followed up by medical professionals and Salus. The entire process from start to finish will take between 4 and 6 days, so individuals will need to plan to order the test early enough to allow for their return to scheduled instruction/work. Additional details will follow in the coming weeks.

Please remember that while our protocols are designed to reduce the risk of exposure, the contagious nature of COVID-19 means we cannot eliminate all risk of infection. We have successfully made it this far thanks to your efforts in following protocols and remaining flexible throughout pandemic. I ask that you continue to follow guidelines and act responsibly. You have become more resilient and adaptable as we have moved through these past nine months. Let’s hang in there so we can all sprint across the finish line together in the upcoming months. Please try to get out and enjoy the nice weather that’s predicted for this weekend. As always, please remember to wear your face mask, socially distance and wash your hands frequently. Be safe, remain vigilant and stay SALUS STRONG!

Mike

Dr. Joseph Toland

Today Salus University payed tribute to Dr. Joseph Toland, a gentleman, scholar and true professional who has played a significant role into the evolution of optometry and our institution for several decades. Thanks to the generosity of many of our alumni, faculty and staff we have named the large classroom in The Eye Institute in honor of Dr. Toland.  

Dr. Toland has single handedly trained hundreds of us, took on organized opposition to the evolution of the scope of practice of optometry while at the same time caring for thousands of patients in world-class fashion.  His loyalty to our university, his students, his patients and our profession, combined with his compassion, great sense of humor and keen intellect, has had a significant impact on the quality of care we provide for our patients and the manner in which optometry is practiced nationally.  

If you get a chance, please stop by and say thanks to Dr. Toland for all he's done - and check out his portrait in the Dr. Joseph Toland classroom on the second floor of The Eye Institute.

The Eye Institute - Oak Lane

Great event at The Eye Institute last night. We had over 100 of our very generous donors, faculty, students and staff participate in the re-dedication of our Flagship clinical facility in the Oak Lane section of Philadelphia. It was great to show off the facility as well as meet and talk with many of our distinguished guests. Nice way to start off the week!

The Eye Institute Renovation & Re-Dedication

This Sunday we are celebrating the re-dedication and renovation of The Eye Institute in Oak Lane. This has a very special meaning to me as it was my class that was the very first one to see patients on a regular basis there. In 1978, when the building was first opened, it was considered a state-of-the-art facility, winning all sorts of architectural awards for innovation and design. From my recollection, it looked like the inside of a ship, with exposed HVAC ducts (bright green and blue), the exam rooms which were located in modules on the second floor had walls that extended only 3/4 of the way up and there were no places for student-faculty consultations other than small offices and hallways. One could walk up and down the halls and hear every interaction between students, patients and instructors. Not exactly HIPPA compliant! Visual field testing was done at the end of a hallway or on a tangent screen in the rear of each exam room. Fast forward to today, where, thanks to the vision and hard work of my predecessor, Dr. Tom Lewis and others including Dr. Sue Oleszewski, Mr. Pat Sweeney, Mr. Don Kates, the Salus Board of Trustees and a host of very generous private and corporate donors, this 35+ year old facility has once again been transformed into the state-of-the-art vision care facility that is second to none.  

I want to pass along my heartfelt thanks to all those who had a hand in transforming our flagship clinical facility into what it is today - Philadelphia's leading eye care facility.  This extensive undertaking is totally aligned with our long-standing commitment to our mission to provide competent, comprehensive and patient-centered vision care to all who seek services, while at the same time, providing the highest quality clinical education to optometric trainees and the community it serves. The excellent quality of care patients experience is now enhanced by a beautifully designed modern clinical space.

This newly designed facility also provides us with a wonderful opportunity to integrate a Patient Centered Medical Home into our practice sometime in the future.  As we continue to mature as one of the nation's leading Health Science Professions Universities we have the responsibility to continue to evolve our healthcare delivery model to meet the demands of a very fluid healthcare delivery environment. This must include weaving primary care directly into our current delivery model.  As I've stated in previous blogs, I believe a Patient Centered Medical Home model provides a cost-effective way to deliver high quality, essential care to the community we service directly in Oak Lane but also an opportunity to model this for other locations.  Have a great weekend!

Improved Healthcare for 2014

As we begin 2014 I want to have frank discussion and have Salus play a key role in helping to craft a transformation in the American healthcare system that results in better health outcomes, a more effective and efficient delivery model and improved access for undeserved populations, specifically those living in urban environments. This must include a dialog about changing behaviors both of how people access the healthcare system as well as how they act individually. In a recent OP-ED that was published in the Philadelphia Inquirer I discussed the attributes of a Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) and how this model was being effectively deployed in the Military Health System. I mentioned how people enrolled in such a model tended to use the Emergency Room less frequently (in locations where a PCMH was established, ER visits decreased by approximately 30%) and health outcomes appeared to be better. I firmly believe that this model, where primary care providers to include physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, optometrists, podiatrists, nutritionists, mental health specialists, etc. serve as the primary conduit into the care system should become a centerpiece for our national healthcare system. But even as we craft an improved delivery system, we need to take a very frank and candid look at ourselves as a society and address our expectations of the healthcare system, how we utilize and access healthcare and some of the underlying behaviors that are the subsequent causes of disease that cost us all so much.

First and foremost we need to change the culture of healthcare from one of being reactive to proactive. Prevention and the preservation of wellness must be front-lined and in order to do that, must be incentive-based. Stronger policies combined with new, innovative behavioral health programs that integrate specialties such as clinical psychology, nutrition, social work and specially trained counselors are needed to help people change lifestyles that contribute to poor health such as alcohol consumption, smoking and obesity. While many states are making efforts to reduce smoking, there are fewer policies to tackle the harmful use of alcohol in the U.S. than you would find in other OECD countries, such as higher taxes on alcohol or minimum prices. 

The most commonly used measure of weight status today is the body mass index, or BMI.  BMI uses a simple calculation based on the ratio of an individual’s height and weight.  Research has shown that BMI provides a good estimate of being overweight and also correlates well with important health outcomes like heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and overall mortality.  Healthy BMI for adult men and women is between 18.5 and 24.9. Overweight has been defined as a BMI between 25.0 and 29.9; and obesity, has a BMI of 30 or higher. Unfortunately, obesity rates have, for the most part, stayed constant since 2003, they have more than doubled since 1980. They remain the highest among all of the high-income countries in the world.  Literature suggests that about two out of three U.S. adults are overweight or obese (69 percent) and one out of three are obese (36 percent). The American Medical Association has recognized obesity as a national epidemic and has declared it a disease to help change the way the medical community addresses the issue.     This is also recognized by the American Public Health Association. While appropriate medical intervention is imperative, I believe we also need to incentive those stricken with the disease to be proactive in managing it. People need to have “skin in the game” if they’re going to change behaviors. Those who have the lowest risk factors would pay less while those with higher risk factors would pay more for health and other types of services.  Since obesity is associated with so many chronic and acute diseases that cost society a fortune to manage, this requires attention now.  My belief is that people who are obese must be both cognizant and accountable for the associated health ramifications and costs in order for many of them to change behaviors and lifestyles.  Since more fuel is required to move more weight in airplanes, trains, cars, buses, etc., I’ve often thought that when one purchases tickets to fly on an airline or on another form of mass transportation, fares could could be adjusted based on a sliding scale of Body Mass Index (BMI). Only after people change their own personal behaviors will be begin to realize substantive changes in the overall health our the population; this, combined with appropriate medical and behavioral health supervision is one way to help move us in that direction. 

Concurrently, we need to be working on how a PCMH model can be rolled out nationally.  It's my sincere hope that we can help to validate this model at Salus, working with local partners and integrating our clinical programs in the Oak Lane section of Philadelphia.  The opportunity to develop a Medical Home in an urban, undeserved area of Philadelphia will reap benefits from a broad health perspective as well as economically. As I mentioned earlier, data shows that when populations are enrolled in medical homes, emergency room and urgent care visits drop dramatically, thus saving valuable healthcare resources as well as improving the overall quality and continuity of care patients ultimately receive. We've got all the right players to model this and prove it’s efficacy at Salus working closely with our academic partners in Philadelphia.  

So, that's my long-winded pitch for today. 2014 needs to bring about change in the healthcare delivery paradigm, by changing behaviors, making people accountable for their own health, and making primary care the centerpiece of our access model through a Patient Centered Medical Home.