This blog post is based on “A Team Approach to Patient Care,” an article published in Radiation Oncology News for Administrators, Vol 31, No 2. The publication is an SROA member benefit.

In September 2020, Jana Grienke, clinical administrator in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Iowa Hospitals, was recognized as a “Healthcare Hero,” and her team approach to health care was featured in an article.

“In radiation oncology, we’re always uber focused on the safety of patients and staff, but when the pandemic started, it really did force us to have a different perspective and approach with things in the clinic,” she said. “Due to the urgency, we needed to make decisions quickly and sometimes in real time.”

A year ago, we anticipated a new decade and all its promise. At the end of 2019, there were hints that 2020 would be extraordinary though, not in the way we expected. The news of novel coronavirus cases in Wuhan, China, foreshadowed the pandemic that swept across the globe this year, but it wasn’t until early March that we had full awareness of the havoc COVID-19 would wreak.

SROA recently hosted a COVID-19 Q&A webinar session with four Board members. The members discussed what their facilities are doing to manage the CDC guidelines and the changing dynamic of the COVID-19 pandemic. All questions asked during the webinar were from SROA members.