unprepared to deal with it in a coherent fashion. Medically speaking,
there's still so much we don't know."
Dr. Peterson says the relaxation of the regulatory environment to
provide flexibility to providers during the pandemic shouldn't be
extended permanently. "When the crisis is over, we need to return to
optimal levels of care, not crisis levels of care," she says. "We're mak-
ing do, but that should not be the new normal. We should strive to at
least go back to where we were before. The reason why many of
those rules are in place is for patient safety and improving the quality
of care."
Mr. Goehle, an AAAHC surveyor, foresees more regulations, espe-
cially on the infection control side. "Before this, pandemic was one of
those things in our emergency plan that was in the back of the book,"
he says. "Now it's the number one thing, and we know this could hap-
pen again very easily."
He thinks facilities will be better prepared for an anticipated second
wave of COVID-19. "In the very beginning of this, we had people still
coming to work with fevers because they were treating it the same way
they treated the flu," he says. "We never had the information to be able
to do a pandemic drill. We're learning everything we possibly can from
this event. If it does strike again, hopefully we'll have policies in place,
we'll have the PPE, we'll know what to do to minimize the spread right
away."
Adds Dr. Shapiro, "I'm hoping we don't take our foot off the brakes
too soon. I think that's probably our biggest risk right now."
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