Paradigm Response to COVID-19 – March 19, 2020

For nearly 30 years, Paradigm has been committed to improving the lives of injured workers as they and their families face extraordinary health and life challenges. Our teams of clinical experts and passionate employees remain focused on this mission through the uncertain and challenging times ahead of us.

At Paradigm, the health and safety of our employees, industry colleagues, injured workers, and communities is paramount. As information related to COVID-19 is changing rapidly, we are closely monitoring information and guidance provided by the federal government, as well as local governments.

Our teams have been in frequent communication with clients on our COVID-19 response and business continuity plans. We have implemented the following clinical and business practices to ensure that we are able to provide (1) uninterrupted service to our clients; (2) safe and attentive care to injured workers; and (3) support and safety to the Paradigm team as we navigate the COVID-19 situation together in the days and weeks ahead.

Business continuity and workforce readiness

Paradigm has business continuity plans in place across all three of our business units.  We have moved to a full work from home program for all of our employees except for a small group who can only perform their jobs within our office. We continue to monitor our work from home program to ensure minimal business disruption. Clients can expect to continue communicating with Paradigm as they do today.

The majority of Paradigm’s workforce and clinical teams have a longstanding practice of working remotely. They are technology enabled and accustomed to communicating and working productively in a remote model. All Paradigm laptops are actively monitored, meet security guidelines including encrypted storage, are up to date on virus and malware protection, and can only connect to Paradigm’s network via VPN requiring two-factor authentication. We are also increasing our internal communications and HR support teams to ensure employees have what they need to support our clients, including back-up should they require their own personal medical attention.

Field-based clinical services

Paradigm remains committed to providing service to injured workers.  In recent weeks, our Network Managers and Field Case Managers have been making every effort to attend essential appointments with injured workers to the extent permitted by medical facilities, hospitals, and providers.  However, in light of restricted access to health care providers and the increasing number of mandatory Stay at Home orders by state and local governments, we are increasing our use of telephonic and video channels to minimize disruptions to care management, consistent with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services guidelines and utilizing HIPAA compliant tools as much as possible.

In addition, we have implemented training and tools for our Field Case Managers and Network Managers in order to assess injured worker risk of COVID-19, as well as protocols to help them facilitate follow up by treating providers.

 Leveraging our clinical expertise and deep resources

We are leveraging our unique capabilities to help injured workers in creative ways.  For example:

• Virtual and Remote Support. Across the enterprise, we are leveraging our clinical expertise together with various technologies to supplement or substitute community interactions with in-home services and remote services, such as telepresence support and virtual physical therapy.
• COVID-19 Focused Triage. We have enhanced our 24/7 Nurse Triage service to handle COVID-19 specific questions and risk identification. We were quickly able to implement clinical guidelines and training to enable nurses to handle these emerging calls.
• Data-informed Risk Identification. In our Catastrophic Care Management division, we are using our deep clinical data in combination with a geographic overlay of COVID-19 outbreak hot spots to identify injured workers under our management who are most at-risk for COVID-19 complications severity. We are then implementing heightened surveillance and management plans for these injured workers.
• Doctor-to-Doctor Consultations to Advance Care. Paradigm Medical Directors, guiding care for catastrophically injured workers, are uniquely positioned to connect with treating providers to obtain injured worker updates and conduct doctor-to-doctor consultations that are critical to advancing effective care and outcomes.
• Extensive Network Access. In addition, the Catastrophic Care Management team is able to access our deep, layered network of clinical partners and vendor relationships to ensure uninterrupted support for injured workers’ in-home needs. We are not reliant on one single source for skilled nursing, therapists, or care attendants; we have deep relationships and a broad network of trusted partners to tap into.

Paradigm remains committed to the critical work of helping injured workers and their families in their time of greatest need. During this global health crisis, we are dedicated to working together as a team to support and care for our injured workers, partners, clients, internal staff, and communities. We welcome your feedback on how we can continue to best serve you.