By Andrea Martin
Two weekends ago, Debra Whiteheart, MHS, PA-C, went for a walk around a lake with her 11-month-old puppy, played catch with him, and relished the time outdoors.
“By the end of the week, I am extremely exhausted—mentally, physically, emotionally, everything,” she says. “Having the weekends off … [gives] me an opportunity to recharge the battery and disconnect from the Internet for a little bit and get ready for another week.”
As assistant medical director of Duke Family Medicine Center, Whiteheart spends more time now creating and organizing documentation and processes, and finding improved ways to communicate with providers in the clinic about COVID-19. In addition to seeing potential COVID-19 patients—both in the clinic and in its drive-through testing site—she still continues her routine patient care and teaching duties. The week of March 30 she conducted her first telehealth visits and began remotely teaching her first-year medical school course, Clinical Skills Foundation.
The past two weeks, the number of patients coming through the drive-through testing site at Duke Family Medicine Center has more than quadrupled. On March 20, the drive-through saw about 30 patients for testing, and less than a week later on March 25 about 60 patients were tested. A record (to date) of 132 patients were tested on April 2.
During the ramp up period of Duke Family Medicine Center’s COVID-19 response, Whiteheart spent more time in the clinic during her administrative time, however last week she began doing more of those administrative tasks at home.
“I have been trying to do a better job of taking those moments of when I don’t have clinic … to stay at home,” she says.
Whiteheart says as the demands on providers at Duke Family Medicine Center increase, particularly as the drive-through testing site shifts to extended hours seven days a week to accommodate the higher volume of patients, she is concerned about burnout among her primary care colleagues—a group already at a higher risk for burnout.
“I am a little nervous about what the new schedule is going to look like with these extended hours and how that’s going to affect myself, as well as some of my colleagues,” she says. “How are we going to best balance taking care of ourselves, taking care of our patients, and taking care of our loved ones?”
Note: Duke Health’s drive-through COVID-19 testing sites are by appointment only and require a provider’s referral.
Special thanks to Jacob Christy who transcribed the interview.