Successful (and Simple) Reduction of COVID-19 Death Rate

The entire world thinks of the USA as a disastrous example of bad handling of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, but within that sprawling country there is a stunning example of how to reduce the death rate.

Against a national fatality rate of 1.76%, the state of Utah held it down to 0.46%.

Westerners tend to be relatively health conscious, inclined to eat well and get exercise, but Western states aren’t all faring so well.

What Did Utah Do Differently?

Health care in Utah is dominated by two huge hospital systems. A relative works for one of them, Intermountain Health Care. I don’t know what the other system is doing, but here is what IHC does.

If you are a patient of IHC, you can call your doctor to request a patient home monitoring kit… and if you are not one of IHC’s patients, you can call IHC centrally to ask for the same thing. Patients are told where to pick up their kit. They show their ID and get a contact free retrieval. Non-patients get their kits at urgent care centers.

Each patient monitoring kit includes a Bluetooth enabled pulse oximeter and an app to be loaded on a smartphone or tablet computer.

What Happens With The Kits?

When you’ve gotten your kit, you use it to check your pulse oximeter readings every day and relay them through the app to a monitoring facility. If you fail to send a daily reading, you’ll be tormented with emails until you do.

If your readings look suspicious, you’ll receive a questionnaire through email. Your answers will be evaluated and you will be advised about what to do next: self-isolate at home, go to a COVID-19 treatment center, whatever is appropriate.

How Much Does It Cost?

IHC provides these kits and services free of charge to both patients and non-patients.

Proof of worth is in the fatality numbers, 0.46% in Utah versus 1.76% nationally.

Behind those numbers? People finding out it’s time to go to the hospital early enough for treatment to work better than if they waited until the situation became dire.

And behind that? Less horror. Shorter hospital stays, therefore lower costs, therefore fewer medical costs that go beyond the patient’s ability to pay (and perhaps have to be absorbed by the hospital).

Wrap-Up

That anyone did this in the American health care system, spending a little to reap so much benefit in so many ways, is striking. It’s simple, smart, better for patients and frontline medical staff and finances.

It’s the type of program that could have rolled out nationwide with universal health care.