Isolation of care: COVID-19 and the burden of healthcare provision

Abstract

In response to COVID-19, hospitals in the United States put rigorous risk-reduction measures into place, including strict no-visitor policies. The resulting patient isolation has had negative effects on the mental health and wellbeing of healthcare providers and patients. We argue that COVID-19 risk assessments failed to consider the long-term effects of isolation on the health and wellbeing of patients and healthcare providers. These findings have implications for understanding the ongoing impact of COVID-19 care on healthcare providers, and for thinking about risk mitigation strategies for current and future healthcare provision and pandemic response preparation and planning.

Implications

The isolation of COVID-19 took a toll on the mental health and wellbeing of both patients and healthcare providers. Restrictive visitor policies were especially harmful for healthcare providers and families. Policy makers – from the CDC to hospitals systems and administrators – must consider the harmful effects of isolation when assessing risk and considering risk reduction measures.

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©2024 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor&Francis Group, LLC

Social Media Statement

A medical anthropologist and emergency medicine physician collaborate on research on the devastating long-term effects of isolation for healthcare providers and patients during COVID-19.

Keywords:

• COVID-19
• care
• isolation
• healthcare providers
• risk

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to our research assistants D’Havian Scott, Mackenzie Carlson, Grace Savard and Mayte Rodriguez for their invaluable support, and to Lenore Manderson and our anonymous reviewers as their contributions strengthened the manuscript greatly. This research received IRB approval from the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ellen Block

Ellen Block is associate professor of anthropology at the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University in Minnesota. She is a medical anthropologist whose work centers on the intersections of health, kinship and care in sub-Saharan Africa and the United States. Her first book, Infected Kin: Orphan Care and AIDS in Lesotho was published with Rutgers University Press in 2019.

Rebecca A. Karb

Rebecca A. Karb has a PhD in Sociology and Social Work from the University of Michigan (2010), and an MD from Harvard University (2014). She is an Emergency Medicine physician at Rhode Island Hospital and Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Brown University, in Providence, RI.