A group of healthcare organization CEOs recently adopted a Declaration of Principles to improve the safety of healthcare workers.

Healthcare settings pose several safety concerns for caregivers and other staff members. The dangers include emotional and psychological harm, hazards such as contaminated sharp objects, and workplace violence.

The CEO Coalition’s Declaration of Principles focuses on three areas of healthcare worker safety. The CEO Coalition features the top executives at 10 healthcare organizations, including Cleveland Clinic, Henry Ford Health System, SSM Health, and UCLA Hospital System.

With pandemic case rates plummeting, telehealth has reached a fork in the road, and one of the industry’s leaders is worried about it.

“The choices we make in the next few months, all around the industry, are going to pave the way for the next decade,” said Joseph Kvedar, MD, chair of the American Telemedicine Association (ATA), who is also a professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School.

“We might not be able to resist that strong magnetic force that draws us back to in-person, brick and mortar,” Kvedar said, as his keynote address opened the 25th annual ATA conference, being held virtually throughout June.

“I keep hearing themes of things that are drawing [providers] back into brick and mortar,” Kvedar said. “I constantly hear about things like ‘our folks want to charge facility fees, or we have beds to fill.

In the worst stretches of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare professionals were profoundly impacted by the rigors and trauma of their work. Experiencing daily challenges associated with the harsh realities of COVID-19 brought the topic of grief and burnout to top of mind for many practitioners.

Yet clinician burnout as a whole did not originate during the pandemic. Stephanie Queen, senior vice president of clinical services and chief nursing officer of Air Methods, an air medical transport organization, began researching clinician grief and burnout as far back as 2004 to better help her colleagues—and herself—with the experience.

“My entire career I’ve been surrounded by death and dying,” says Queen. “I started out my nursing career in adult oncology and transitioned into pediatric oncology, and since the early 2000s I’ve really focused on pediatric ICU and critical care. In school, they do a great job of preparing you for how to physically care for the patients, but a gap still exists in preparing nurses for how you’re going to be changed by the things you see.”

As the nation continues its recovery from the pandemic, be aware of the continuing changes in regulatory guidance—and how they might impact your health system. For instance, while some 1135 blanket waivers are being rescinded or being overridden by state or local requirements, others remain in place or are still being added.

And make sure you differentiate between CDC guidance for the general public and guidance for healthcare organizations.

One hazard to talk to patients about this summer is medication-related sunburn. There is a long list of medicines, such as antibiotics and antihistamines, that can cause photosensitivity as a side effect—making a patient more susceptible to UV light damage. When talking to your patients about the importance of staying hydrated and wearing sunblock, also warn them of possible photosensitive side-effects from their medications, says Bradley T. Truax, MD, principal consultant of the Truax Group.