INDIANAPOLIS — Healthcare systems look much different today than they did five years ago.
The COVID-19 pandemic strained hospitals, clinics and healthcare workers. There were empty roads, closed businesses, travel bans, face masks, curfews and more.
The front-line workers were healthcare employees.
"At first it was scary, scary as a physician taking care of these patients when we didn't know a lot about the virus," said Dr. Graham Carlos. "We were worried about our own safety and our families and bringing things home."
Dr. Carlos with Eskenazi Health said workers scrambled to fight a grim and deadly virus.
"There were struggles with finding PPE, worried we were going to run out of ventilators. We ran out of ICU beds, and had to move patients to places where we wouldn't ordinarily have them in critical care situations," said Dr. Carlos.
Many healthcare employees faced burnout.
"What a lot of people don't realize is that the first surge, as we call it, while scary, had tremendous support from the community and agencies, people bringing food, making signs, honking horns," said Dr. Carlos. "It was the second surge — the delta surge — that was so difficult because we were as busy or busier than we were on the first surge, and all of that support was gone."
"A lot of people were motivated and inspired to pursue careers in healthcare, but then it actually drove a lot of folks out of the healthcare professions," said Dr. Christopher Doering, Vice President for Medical Affairs at Franciscan Health.
Today, things are very different.
"I think from a COVID standpoint, the highly contagious, high fatality rate version of the virus that was circulating five years ago is pretty much long gone. We do, obviously still have plenty of COVID around, but it's it's not the same," he said.
Dr. Michele Saysanna is the interim president of the metro region for Indiana University Health. She said the way people visit doctors has also changed.
"I think what the pandemic did for us was convinced us, both as medical providers and the community, that we could deliver care using telehealth. Prior to the pandemic, we did about 15,000 telehealth visits a year. In 2024, we did about 300,000," said Dr. Saysanna.
Dr. Saysanna said the virus also brought awareness to the need for mental health resources for staff.
"We have taken on a program around psychological first aid so that, I think, is one of the good things that has come out of this," said Dr. Saysanna. "And I think the pandemic also taught us about flexibility."
Doctors say the interest in medicine has also grown, but hospitals say vaccine usage has decreased since the start of the pandemic.
