For many Embry-Riddle graduates the coronavirus pandemic represents an unprecedented downturn for the aviation industry, empty airports and the end of the pilot shortage. But for a small percentage of alumni who work in the medical field, the healthcare crisis is a defining moment in their careers — and a matter of life or death.
To date, more than 80,000 people have died in the United States from causes related to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). And the number is climbing.
A few Embry-Riddle graduates, like Dr. Dan Handel (’10), vice president and chief medical officer at Indiana University (IU) Health – South Central Region, are on the frontlines of the pandemic, making daily decisions that impact lives in the battle against this silent killer.
A practicing physician at four emergency departments in the IU Health system, Handel says he worries about the shrinking number of non-COVID-19 cases at his hospitals — that the public’s fear of contagion will ultimately cause more deaths.
“People stopped coming [to the Emergency Room]. Our volumes are probably half what they were before,” he says. “People still have strokes, people still have heart attacks. The concern is that one of the many secondary consequences [of COVID-19] is that there are people out there who are suffering permanent damage because they’re not seeking care.”
Dr. Dan Handel (’10) is a vice president and chief medical officer at Indiana University Health.
Handel earned a Master in Aeronautical Science degree, he says, to improve his chances of becoming a NASA astronaut. He wasn’t selected for the Astronaut Corps, but his Embry-Riddle experience helped him serendipitously advance in healthcare administration.
“I think there are a lot of lessons that healthcare can learn, has learned and still can learn from the aviation industry,” he says.
Dr. Charles “Chuck” Crinnian (’78) would agree.
Crinnian was one of the first flight instructors at Embry-Riddle’s Prescott Campus when it opened in 1978. Now, he’s a neurohospitalist and a senior aviation medical examiner practicing in Scottsdale, Arizona.
As a neurologist, Crinnian treats disorders of the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nerves. He, like Handel, is concerned about the impact of COVID-19 on people’s long-term health, due to self-quarantine behaviors. “Folks did not seek urgent medical care [for neurologic illnesses]. Thus, the potential for long-term disabilities and poor health consequences will be increased as a cause-effect of the virus,” he says.
Crinnian says the medical community is learning more about COVID-19 every day.
“The rate of strokes, especially in young people who contract the virus is starting to become an issue,” Crinnian says. Additionally, new evidence suggests that the virus is causing blood clotting disorders in other organs as well, such as the lungs, he says.
Dr. Charles “Chuck” Crinnian (’78), pictured with the Nanchang CJ-6A he flies, is a neurohospitalist and a senior aviation medical examiner.
“This information that’s evolving now, takes it out of the classic respiratory issue into other organs and that’s a little bit scary,” Crinnian says. “At this point, we don’t know what we don’t know.”
Embry-Riddle graduates are also tackling healthcare logistics challenges in the battle against COVID-19.
“[The coronavirus] changed the way we do business on a daily basis,” says Phil Franks (’08), director of systems operations for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. A retired U.S. Army helicopter pilot, Franks had post-military aspirations of working in aerospace, but after earning a second degree in business administration at UCLA Anderson School of Management, he pivoted his career to healthcare.
As the chief operations officer for the second largest municipal health system in the nation, COVID-19 has tested his crisis management skills.
“You really have to make sure that you don’t surge into a scenario that you can’t handle, whether it’s your supply chain, physical beds, testing capabilities, you name it. We’ve spent countless hours modeling our supply chain and bed capacity to make sure that we don’t fall into any traps,” Franks says.
While LA County’s health system was better prepared than most with available disaster caches of personal protective equipment (PPE), there were still supply chain challenges. According to Franks, the worldwide demand for test kits and authentic, medical-grade face masks outstripped the supply. “The pipeline just isn’t there. Companies like 3M can’t produce enough masks to keep up with the need,” he says.
Phil Franks (’08) is the director of systems operations for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services.
Franks’ models for the LA County hospital system initially called for a potential need for 22,000 to 25,000 N-95 masks, per day. Fortunately, the actual need proved to be roughly half of that as the COVID-positive numbers leveled off.
“We’re burning 11,000 to 12,000 masks a day, which is good; but when you’re doing disaster planning, modeling and projections, you have to build your caches to where the models tell you where it could go. To use a sports analogy: You’re not chasing the puck; you’re trying to beat the puck to where it’s going. You’ve got to be able to meet the puck; if you can’t, that’s a problem.”
Franks has built a reputation for “meeting the puck.” When he started working for the LA County Health Department in 2018, he initiated a patient flow management system, incorporating a centralized Patient Transfer Center to get patients who presented at out-of-network hospitals back to their “home” hospital in the LA County system, as soon as possible. He says the strategy increased the number of repatriated or returned patients by 300 percent. The benefits are better patient outcomes and an improved continuum of care, Franks says. Returned patients also benefit the system’s bottom line.
When the pandemic hit in California in March, Franks reverse-engineered the transfer center’s operations to protect non-COVID-19 patients and focus critical care resources where the need was greatest.
“We flipped the flow of patients to an outflow vs. the inflow for repatriation. I honestly don't know what we would have done without our centralized transfer center, as there was no mechanism in place prior to its establishment,” Franks says.
Patients were sent to locations like the newly formed LA Surge Hospital, USNS Mercy, skilled nursing facilities, and other county-designated quarantine sites supporting COVID operations. “It has greatly reduced the load on our staff, increased our surge bed capacity, and availability to our equipment (ventilators, etc.),” he says.
Matt Wain (’95) was an officer in the U.S. Army and flew Black Hawk helicopters, before retiring from the Army Reserve in 2008 and starting a second career in academic healthcare administration. Today, he is the CEO of Emory University Hospital and two other hospitals in the Emory University Healthcare system in Atlanta.
“It’s the adversity of our generation,” he says, referring to the pandemic. Wain’s decade of experience in hospital administration and his military background gave him the confidence to lead his team through the crisis, and with positive results.
“Our care teams have risen to the call in the fight against COVID-19, providing exceptional care for our patients, finding new and creative ways to connect patients with their loved ones during visitor restrictions and showing dedication to their profession to care for the sick, even during a global health emergency with many unknowns,” he says. “They teach a lesson in resiliency every day.”
He predicts telemedicine, as a method for basic diagnostic and pre-operative consultation and care, will likely grow as a result of the coronavirus crisis — which greatly expanded adoption of the service model. “We’re now doing 15,000 telemedicine visits a week; we were doing a fraction before.”
Wain says his Embry-Riddle education and military background dovetailed perfectly to establish a strong foundation for his success in healthcare administration. “Without Embry-Riddle, I wouldn’t be sitting here today,” he says.
Matt Wain (’95), pictured here, and at top, right (banner image), is the CEO of three hospitals in the Emory University Healthcare System.
Jennifer Whitlow (’94), senior vice president and chief communications officer at UnitedHealth Group, a global health benefits and services provider, says her Embry-Riddle experience also heavily influenced her career path. It was there, she says, that she was first introduced to the idea of marrying career with service.
“One of the more meaningful takeaways from going to Embry-Riddle was being exposed to some very accomplished senior military officers (who were professors), that true sense of service, and that being a part of something bigger than yourself was very influential.”
Whitlow earned a B.S. in Aviation Business Administration and spent the next 25 years working in aerospace communications, marketing and sales. In 2019, she transferred her skills and her passion for service to the healthcare industry.
As a senior executive at UnitedHealth Group, Whitlow witnessed service in action when the pandemic struck. The insurance and medical provider transformed its operations to safeguard its 325,000 employees and provide for the unique needs of clients, patients and their communities.
Jennifer Whitlow (’94), pictured with an F-35 in her previous role at Lockheed Martin, is senior vice president/chief communications officer for UnitedHealth Group.
“We mobilized childcare and transportation support for our clinicians and moved high-risk employees and non-clinical staff to a work-from-home status. We moved thousands of doctors into telehealth visits. ... We made 7.7 million outbound calls to seniors across America to make sure they have their medication and they have food and company – just checking in with them to make sure they’re feeling OK. We partnered in our communities with nonprofits to create COVID-19 compliant food service for more than 75,000 people a week,” she says.
“As a communicator, to be able to tell that story – the selfless heroics of our team every day, it’s really been an incredibly fulfilling experience.”