2020 Outcomes Report Portland Shriners Hospital

Providing care during COVID-19

2020 was certainly an unexpected year for us all, but throughout the entire COVID-19 pandemic, the health and safety of our patients, families, and staff remained our top priority. Throughout the pandemic, the Portland Shriners Hospital implemented and maintained extensive safety and sanitation protocols, ensuring that any step to protect our patients and families was taken. Since 1924, we have remained committed to our patients each and every day, and our tradition of caring for kids did not stop now. During the pandemic, we enhanced our services to meet the need of our community. We launched our telehealth program (Fast Track Video Visits) which was developed as a convenient option for patients and families to help eliminate barriers to care. Through the use of Fast Track Video Visits, providers at the Portland Shriners Hospital were able to continue to provide specialized orthopaedic care to new and established patients from the comfort of the patient’s home via video software. By utilizing

I am forever grateful to the Portland Shriners Hospital. The work that they do is so critical and important – they will help any child become the best person they can be. I am who I am today because of Shriners.

Maria, past patient

telehealth, our providers were able to reduce the number of patients who needed to come to the hospital while also providing the same level of specialized care that our patients and families have come to expect. Even as we move past COVID-19, our telehealth program will continue to enable us to provide care for patients in a way that is most convenient for families. To help relieve the burden on emergency rooms and urgent care systems during COVID-19, the Portland Shriners Hospital also extended our Walk-in Fracture & Sports Injury Clinic during the height of the pandemic. Beginning in April, the clinic, which is typically 5-days per week, expanded to 7 days per week. There is never a good time for kids to experience an injury or a fracture, but our hope was to give families peace of mind in knowing that the Portland Shriners Hospital is available as a reliable resource for families throughout the COVID-19 crisis. The clinic returned to regular hours in June. “We wanted to do our part to help our community during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Robert Bernstein, M.D., chief of staff at the Portland Shriners Hospital. “We are uniquely positioned to provide urgent care for children with musculoskeletal injuries in a clean environment, and our hope is to offload the burden of non-COVID-19 pediatric patients seen in emergency departments.” Despite the far-reaching effects of the pandemic, the comprehensive care model at the Portland Shriners Hospital never changed.

Shriners Hospitals for Children — Portland 30

31

2020 Annual Outcomes Report