RELEASE: Great Plains Health
North Platte, Neb., December 21, 2022 – Great Plains Health is the recipient of the 2022 Distinguished Service Award from the Nebraska Infection Control Network (NICN) for helping to provide effective, meaningful antibody treatments to vulnerable patients in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rather than bringing elderly COVID-19 patients into the hospital for the bamlanivimab antibody treatment and exposing them to more germs, a team of Great Plains Health nursing staff dressed in their personal protective equipment (PPE) and drove to long-term care facilities across the state to administer the COVID-19 therapeutics directly to patients in the facilities who needed them.
The antibodies, when administered soon after infection through an intravenous infusion, can lessen the effect of COVID-19 symptoms.
This creative strategy, first implemented in November of 2020, helped improve access to valuable treatment and provided treasured connection with others. Heather Jensen, RN, BSN, outreach coordinator at Great Plains Health, helped to facilitate the initiative.
“We wanted to lessen the effects of COVID-19 for our patients, but the human connection was just as meaningful,” Jensen said. “Little things, like talking to a woman about her grandchildren, or playing card games with a woman who had been in isolation
for months, was fulfilling for patients and nursing staff alike.” Phyllis Mackley, LPN, Great Plains Health Orthopedics, helped administer the treatments.
“I like starting IVs, so I knew I could help,” Mackley said. “I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, but we saw the struggle of how they were trying handle COVID-19 in long-term care facilities. It was hard for patients, staff and families. I wanted to lend a
helping hand.”
The teamwork resulted in 84 percent of eligible patients receiving an antibody treatment within a mere 24 hours after testing positive for COVID-19. “The value of being an independent hospital was very evident because we could be nimble and adapt,” Jensen added. “We are a small team that was able to come to a solution and act quickly. Physicians, nurses, administration and employees from every department of Great Plains Health worked together to make this treatment accessible
for our patients in this way.”
By January of 2021, a total of 485 patients had been treated, with a median age of 76. COVID-related hospitalizations at the 14-day follow-up point were 4.2 percent compared to an all-cause rate of 6.04 percent.
“Though the approach appeared to require nursing staff that we could not spare, the actual outcome was a reduced burden on our ER, ICU and medical surgical nurses, respiratory therapists, providers and all staff,” Jason North, PharmD, MBA, pharmacy director, said.
North acknowledges the leadership and expertise of Dr. Eduardo Freitas, Great Plains Health Infectious Disease, in monitoring cutting-edge COVID-19 treatments, providing and approving treatment protocols and supporting local efforts. Dr. Freitas says the treatments were important in the overall strategy to mitigate the impact of COVID-19.
“I am proud to be a part of the team at Great Plains Health and I know that these efforts saved lives,” Dr. Freitas said. “We didn’t wait to convene and create an action plan. We knew the sooner that we administered this treatment to COVID-19 patients in long-term care facilities, the sooner we could help our community.”
###
About Great Plains Health
Based in North Platte, Nebraska, Great Plains Health is a fully accredited, 116-bed
acute-care regional medical center serving western and central Nebraska, northern
Kansas and southern South Dakota. With 90 physicians representing nearly 30 medical
specialties, the Great Plains Health system offers advanced health care, including heart
and vascular, cancer, and orthopedic surgery services. Great Plains Health is a Level III
trauma center, and all of its emergency department physicians are residency-trained
and board-certified in emergency medicine. The system employs approximately 1,200
employees and serves a geographic area spanning more than 67,000 square miles.
The hospital is accredited by the Center for Improvement in Healthcare Quality (CIHQ)
and is home to an American College of Surgeons-accredited cancer center and Level II
bariatric surgery program. For more information, visit gphealth.org.
About Nebraska Infection Control Network
The Nebraska Infection Control Network (NICN) is a non-for-profit organization that was
founded in 1980 by Philip W. Smith, MD. Its mission was to improve the quality of
healthcare in Nebraska hospitals, long term care facilities and communities through the
prevention and control of infectious diseases. The primary focus of NICN throughout the
years has been to offer healthcare workers basic infection prevention and control
courses multiple times a year. The NICN uniquely combines the volunteer efforts of key
agencies to accomplish our educational goals and build trained infection prevention and
control workforce in Nebraska. More information on NICN can be found on its website:
nicn.org
