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<p>Not all healthcare heroes wear scrubs. Some of them come to work wearing inconspicuous everyday attire, Clark-Kent style.</p>
<p>Public health professionals such as those at the Utah Department of Health (UDOH) have been tackling tidalwaves of misinformation and near hysteria during COVID-19.</p>
<p>It began in late February, according to Kendra Babitz, Policy Coordinator for UDOH. As the first cases of COVID-19 started showing up in Utah, the Department of Health became overwhelmed by the workload. They started putting freezes on other projects to increase staff in areas like poison control, the Coronavirus hotline, contact tracing, and investigation interviews for people who might have contracted the disease.</p>
<p>“Normally when there’s an outbreak, like with the hepatitis outbreak, they will occasionally pull in people to help if needed, but it’s not this sort of all-hands-on-deck process,” said Christal Dent, the Assistant Program Manager for the tobacco prevention and control program.</p>
<p>Despite this new hodgepodge response team, UDOH couldn’t keep up with the flood of coronavirus questions. Phone lines were jammed. Employees were stressed. And Utahns were frustrated.</p>
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<h2><b>UDOH changes the game with one simple tool.</b></h2>
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<p>During the scramble, Podium offered free access to Webchat, enabling UDOH to answer questions digitally.</p>
<p>“Webchat makes it a lot quicker for people to get in touch with a real person than if they call a phone line, go through a recording, and then get rerouted somewhere else,” Kendra said. “Webchat has become the first line of defense for the public’s reaction to whatever is happening.”</p>
<p>With Webchat’s ability to handle hundreds of conversations, UDOH’s phones lines have been freed up for critical calls. People who may have contracted the virus or need other immediate attention can call UDOH without waiting on hold for several minutes.</p>
<p>Christal told us that Webchat has also relieved pressure on employees from other departments to know every detail about the virus.</p>
<p>“It has made some of the people helping with chat a lot more comfortable because it isn’t live. They have time to find an answer, compose themselves, think about their response, or get help from others, as opposed to a phone call,” Christal said.</p>
<p>Webchat also enables employees to track the public’s concerns. Each day, UDOH creates a report of the most commonly asked questions on Webchat and general themes of the day. The governor’s office uses these daily reports to know what topics to address publicly, and how Utahns are feeling.</p>
<p>“There’s a lot of information that we’re getting through the chat and we’re funneling it up and seeing that changes are happening,” said Linnea Fletcher, the Program Manager for diabetes programs. “People in charge are reading those reports every day.”</p>
<p>At Podium, we’re grateful for everyone in the healthcare industry working to serve and protect our communities. We salute your tremendous efforts during these uncertain times and feel privileged to help in any small way we can.</p>
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How the Utah Department of Health informs the public through Webchat