The Blessing Express Clinic team will likely never forget January 2022. They saw more than 6,000 patients over those 31 days, mostly for COVID-19 testing due to the omicron variant.

How was the team—including 2 RNs, 3 LPNs and 2 CMAs—able to meet that demand?

“We changed our workflows,” said Kelly Maisel, RN, Walk-In Clinic/Express Clinic manager. “The Adams County Health Department took over our COVID vaccine program so we could focus on testing. Then, we staffed each of the Clinic’s four drive-thru lanes with a provider and a nurse. We were able to do that because providers and nurses from other departments came to help us when they could. Then, Security responded to handle traffic control, helping patients know what lane to use for the care they needed.”

“The change of workflow was huge,” she stated.

The team was used to ever-changing workflows. It began nearly 2 years before the delta and omicron surges—when the Express Clinic’s forerunner opened at the start of the pandemic to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 by testing people with respiratory illness outside of the traditional clinic setting. That place was called the Blessing Flu-Like Illness Screening Center at the Blessing Conference Center at 28th and Chestnut.  

“We had to adapt from the beginning,” said Tena Awerkamp, director, Primary Care Services. “The staff redeveloped workflows very quickly and revisited the workflows regularly to adjust to the changing environment that came with COVID.”

“We just keep reinventing ourselves,” she continued.

The Flu-Like Illness Screening Center recorded 15,849 patient visits between the day it opened on March 16, 2020 and the day it closed at the end of that year to move and become the Blessing Express Clinic.

With the Blessing Express Clinic seeing 200 to 300 cars a day during the height of the delta and omicron surges, Tena said the timing of the change was perfect.

“Had we not created Blessing Express Clinic, I don’t believe the Screening Center could have handled the delta or the omicron surges,” she concluded. “Could you imagine hundreds of cars snaked throughout the neighborhood at 28th and Chestnut?”

COVID-19 is not the only reason patients come to the Blessing Express Clinic. The staff provides testing and care for a variety of non-life-threatening illnesses. From its opening day, January 4, 2021, through January 31, 2022, Blessing Express Clinic recorded 22,368 visits.

“What makes Express Clinic successful is that it is geared toward the expectations of today’s patient,” Kelly observed. “People want health care quickly. They don’t want to have to get out of their vehicle, go into a clinic and wait. They feel this is a faster process and see this as a huge benefit. It also helps with some of the fear factor, for kids especially.”

“It exceeds our patient expectations,” Kelly concluded.

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