Health departments, both state and local, learned many lessons from going through the COVID-19 pandemic. Communications, making friends and funding stood out as top of mind.

Michigan Association of Local Public Health Executive Director Norm Hess said the group was having a “high-level review” to look at the pandemic response and would release it in June or July.  He said there was one lesson that all areas of health quickly had to learn.

“The communication aspect is definitely something that we want to delve into and make sure that in the future we have really good processes for that,” Hess said.

He said in the beginning, the federal Centers for Disease Control had to get messages out to the states.

Each state had to integrate them into their own state health laws and then communicate that to the local health departments.

The health officers then had to adjust those to local ordinances and communicate that to residents.  The process was slow.

“All of this is happening while the news is reporting on it every day and social media is 24/7,” he said.

He said all the players needed to be in the loop and not be surprised by new information emerging daily, forcing everyone to adjust the strategy and confusing the residents who were getting whiplash from the information.

Another lesson Hess pointed to was the relationship that health agencies had with residents, businesses and hospitals before the pandemic started. He said the relationships quickly became invaluable because of all the different levels required for the response.

He said where those relationships didn’t exist before the pandemic started saw some of the worst-hit areas.

“It’s hard to start making friends in the middle of a crisis,” Hess said.

To highlight that he pointed to the short amount of time between when the COVID-19 vaccine was released and getting it into the arms of people who wanted it.

“We went from no one being vaccinated to the majority of people who want the vaccine in just a couple months. I think that was really incredible,” Hess said.

He said it wouldn’t be possible if it were not for the funding. The boom-bust cycle of funding public health was “really problematic” and any future pandemic would benefit from a steady revenue stream for health.

“The public health system in Michigan had been underfunded for 30 years and then all of a sudden, all this extra work and expectations were put on local health departments,” he said.

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Lynn Sutfin agreed that early in the pandemic there were differences that stood out in the levels of care between areas in the state.

“The pandemic brought into sharp focus previously existing disparities in health and health care, with people of color, particularly Black and African American people, bearing the heaviest burden of negative impacts on health and well-being, as well as socioeconomic impacts,” Sutfin said.

She said MDHHS was able to mitigate that through the COVID-19 Racial Disparities Task Force and it was through recommendations by the task force that responses were able to be evened out.

She said they were able to do that through community outreach and helping form those relationships that Hess mentioned.

Sutfin said the state was continuing that strategy even after the pandemic, because the strategy was beneficial to the physical and mental health of all involved.

MDHHS Senior Chief Deputy Director for Health Farah Hanley said one thing coming out of the pandemic that was a boon for the state was the expansion of telehealth, which helped get access to health care for people who didn’t have it before.

“We saw a lot of success with telehealth during the pandemic,” Hanley said.

She said that in the post-public health emergency world that telehealth would be something that would be built on.

Michigan Association of Health Plans Executive Director Dominick Pallone said there were studies coming out that highlighted negative effects of telehealth.

“I think there will be good policy debates and discussions in the future about whether access to something that’s bad quality is a positive for the individual,” Pallone said.

He said he was amazed by the way people were kept insured throughout the pandemic because of the swift action by Congress and the Legislature to pause and expand Medicaid.

He hoped that coming through the pandemic would help the health care industry.

“I think this unfortunate natural experiment that we all went through will hopefully shape how we’re providing healthcare differently and increasing access to health care, but also finding that balance that we’re not jeopardizing the quality of health,” Pallone said.

This story courtesy of MIRS, a Lansing-based news and information service.