University Health Truman Medical Center (UH TMC) continues to follow all CDC recommendations for testing, treatment, and PPE. Each provider has access to appropriate PPE while working in the emergency department. We are fortunate to have exemplary hospital leadership, including several who are emergency physicians. Our former Chair, in his role as UH TMC’s Associate Chief Medical Officer, serves as the leader of the incident command center responsible for managing the hospital’s COVID-19 response. Dr. O’Rourke, our Associate Program Director is also the ED operations director and has been a key liaison between our residents and hospital leadership. Our department spearheaded hospital-wide COVID airway simulation training and has hosted regular ED town halls with our Chair, hospital, and department leadership addressing our response to COVID-19. Our residents have the ability to submit anonymous questions and recommendations in advance. Our hospital sends daily e-mail announcements regarding our COVID-19 response that are helpful and relevant.

UH TMC has been a community leader during the COVID pandemic. We are keenly aware that the patient population we serve has been disproportionately affected by COVID. To that end, UH TMC has sponsored multiple community testing sites, initiated a drive-up testing site, and our physicians have participated in multiple community events, including educational panels, mask distribution, and mass vaccination efforts. We are currently promoting and offering vaccines to patients and visitors in the ED.

Our department research team has also participated in two large CDC funded multi-center projects, COVERED and PREVENT, both of which have led to multiple publications and have informed CDC recommendations. See our Research page for more information.