NOTE: This message is from Jamie Swift, Ballad Health corporate director for infection prevention. Out of an abundance of caution regarding the potential spread of COVID-19, the Highly Infectious Disease Conference, sponsored by Ballad Health and the Northeast Tennessee Healthcare Preparedness Coalition, scheduled for March 23 will no longer be an in-person symposium. Instead, the conference will be adapted into a two-hour interactive webinar. Unfortunately, due to this format, we will be unable to offer Continuing Medical Education (CME)/Continuing Nurse Education (CNE) credit. We did not come to this decision lightly, but following social distancing recommendations, we felt it was important to move the conference online to protect our attendees. We still believe this conference will be especially beneficial and pertinent to attendees, considering COVID-19’s emergence and spread worldwide. During the conference, we will analyze various response tactics currently being used to contain and mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Our keynote speaker, Dr. Gavin Macgregor-Skinner,…

NOTE: This message was sent by Alan Levine, Ballad Health president and CEO, on Friday, Feb. 28, to all team members as well as to the community at large. Dear colleagues and community members, I am writing to share some important information about the novel coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19. To date, there have been more than 80,000 confirmed cases in China and 31 other countries and territories, including 53 cases in the United States. There have been no reported cases in Tennessee or Virginia so far. Ballad Health has plans in place to ensure our health system and team members are prepared to confront this public health challenge. We are coordinating our efforts with the Tennessee and Virginia Departments of Health, statewide associations and regional and local stakeholders, while receiving up-to-date information from the CDC and World Health Organization (WHO) about the status of the coronavirus. I also want to thank our partners at…