COVID-19 Safety News Briefs
April 11, 2020
Virtual town halls on pregnancy and COVID-19, Tuesdays at noon
The Betsy Lehman Center and the Perinatal-Neonatal Quality Improvement Network of Massachusetts (PNQIN) are co-hosting a series of virtual town halls to share challenges and innovations in perinatal care during the pandemic. 

This past week’s town hall convened almost 250 participants and featured rapid fire presentations on six emerging challenges followed by an interactive discussion. Sign up  here  to receive updates and invitations to future town halls, including the next one on Tuesday, April 14 at noon.
The Center is prepared to facilitate virtual town halls to connect other groups of health care providers during the response to COVID-19.  Send us an email  with your suggestions for future topics.
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Protecting the safety and wellbeing of patients, clinicians and staff

Our new publication,  COVID-19 Information for Massachusetts Medical Office Practices , synthesizes and links to up-to-date recommendations, guidance and tools from state and federal authorities that are of particular relevance to those who practice or work in physicians’ offices. Produced in partnership with the Board of Registration in Medicine and the Massachusetts Medical Society, this publication was emailed to all 41,000 licensed physicians in the state and is updated regularly on the Betsy Lehman Center’s  website , along with other COVID-19 resources.
Twitter’s short, fast-paced style is a good match for the torrent of news and stories about COVID-19. Tweeting takes a little practice but joining is easy and the platform is flexible.

During the pandemic, many are using Twitter to monitor late-breaking news, disseminate lessons learned, find training tools, and connect with others at a time of high stress. Clinicians and staff share stories and offer each other support with brief messages, photographs and links to articles.

Twitter has gained acceptance among health care professionals and institutions, but caution is advised. It is an open platform; tweets are visible to all as public speech. Check with your organization, professional association, or the Massachusetts Medical Society for policies or recommendations on using social media. The privacy of patients and their information must always be protected.

Go to Twitter for  help  getting started. Once you’ve joined, you can find relevant topics by  hashtag .   #COVID19 is a very popular one; likely too popular to help you zero in on what you need. Instead, consider following people and organizations you trust. Search on Twitter to find their usernames.

See our twitter feed @BetsyLehmanCtr for a pinned post with some relevant usernames to get you started.
Donning and doffing PPE safely

Due to potential exposure to COVID-19, more health care workers are asked to wear personal protective equipment in a wider variety of settings than ever before. Massachusetts General Hospital offers a video that shows the sequencing for donning (putting on) and doffing (removing) PPE — including respirators, surgical masks, gloves, isolation gowns and eye protection — to prevent transmission of pathogens. The CDC also offers a printable illustration in English and Spanish suitable for hanging in a prominent place in your office or facility. Remember that performing hand hygiene is a key component of proper use of PPE, whether with alcohol-based sanitizers or soap and water .
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