Local doctors find new job duties during coronavirus crisis

Many people have revamped their jobs during this pandemic, including certain kinds of doctors, like anesthesiologists.

We got to speak with a partner with U.S. Anesthesia Partners, which is a collaboration of anesthesiologists from across the country. Dr. Tony Kim also serves as the Chief of Anesthesiology at Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center. He told us all about how they've been finding ways to use their critical-care skills to step into new roles, while taking a break from the operating room during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It has been a busy few weeks. Patient volume has gone down on the surgical side, while patients are coming in COVID-positive, so we've been looking at how to handle that in infectious control.  We're being innovative with different techniques.  We've been building some equipment to limit our exposure and making sure our patients are well taken care of," explains Dr. Kim.

While his job duties have temporarily changed, he's been innovative and able to stay productive during the crisis.

"It has been non-stop, helping collaborate across the country. We provide best practices, share our experiences, take care of patients. We learned from our partners in Seattle, when they were in full crisis, how to handle any similar situations here in the Houston area, Dr. Kim explains. 

"Now we're in the process of talking revamp and recovery and talking about how to get things up and running again. Now I'm back in the operating room, and it's starting to get busy again. We are still busy trying to make sure patients and clinicians are safe and talking about aspects of testing, making sure patients come in to the system safely and are well taken care of. We expect to see an increase in the hospitals overall and we'll hopefully get back to more normalcy," smiles Dr. Kim.

For more information: https://www.usap.com/