Project Description
Dr. Bruce Ellsweig
(Crystal Run Physician & Sullivan County Medical Director)
Sullivan 180 Presents…
TAKE FIVE!
November 10, 2020
Here is Part 2 of our conversation with The Ellsweigs, this week with Dr. Bruce Ellsweig, Crystal Run physician and Sullivan County Medical Director. Dr. Ellsweig spoke to us about the challenges caused by COVID-19, resources available to Sullivan County residents, and the ways people can stay healthy.
Sullivan 180 Presents…
TAKE FIVE!
November 10, 2020
Here is Part 2 of our conversation with The Ellsweigs, this week with Dr. Bruce Ellsweig, Crystal Run physician and Sullivan County Medical Director. Dr. Ellsweig spoke to us about the challenges caused by COVID-19, resources available to Sullivan County residents, and the ways people can stay healthy.
Dr. Bruce Ellsweig
(Crystal Run Physician & Sullivan County Medical Director)
Transcript of Interview with Dr. Bruce Ellsweig
November 10, 2020
Meaghan Mullally-Gorr:
Hi, I’m Meaghan Mullally-Gorr. Welcome to Sullivan 180 Presents Take Five!. Our guests today are Dr. Bruce Ellsweig and Mrs. Karen Ellsweig. Welcome. Thank you both for joining us today, Dr. Ellsweig, tell us about your current positions and or organizations, and maybe mention a little bit about how you’re involved with Sullivan 180.
Dr. Bruce Ellsweig:
I’m a physician, I’m a family doc at Crystal Run Healthcare, I’m board certified in family medicine and hospice and palliative care. I’m the chairman of a public health advisory committee for the Sullivan County public health services. And I’m also the medical director for Sullivan County public health services.
Meaghan Mullally-Gorr:
What has it been like being a physician during the COVID-19 pandemic? How has your day to day changed?
Dr. Bruce Ellsweig:
So please call me Bruce. The entire structure of access to our practice changed because of COVID, there’s screening, there’s access limitation. If you’ve had any symptoms related to COVID, we don’t allow people to enter the building. We screen them when they schedule, we screen them when they arrive to the office, we do temperature checks before entering the building. The other thing that has developed has certainly been tele-health. Tele-health is both a blessing and a curse sometimes. It allows us to communicate with the people who need our services, but it takes away the intimacy of the touch and the body language relationship that is so important to a primary care physician, but we do a great deal of telehealth and it has provided people who normally wouldn’t have access to have a fear of exposure or who have had symptoms and cannot enter the building to communicate with us, to have medications refill, to screen their chronic illnesses and to participate in their health care. So that’s been the major change that we’ve had structurally in our practice. Certainly people, particularly those people who are in the most vulnerable populations have had a great deal of fear about leaving their homes for the last six months. So it’s been an incredible challenge to try to get them to deal with their healthcare issues, to maintain their active medications, to make sure that they have even adequate resources for feeding for social interaction on some level. So it it’s both medical, social, emotional, all of these things thrown into the basket of dealing with COVID-19.
Meaghan Mullally-Gorr:
Do you find that when you are encouraging people to have the social connections that they have the resources to do? So have they maybe reached out to family and friends over the telephone or over zoom? Do they have those resources to reach out to others being nervous and at home?
Dr. Bruce Ellsweig:
Some people do, but as you know, we have a compromised broadband, so zoom is not available for many people in Sullivan County. Certainly I encourage people to interact with their families, interact with their friends, interact with their neighbors, and at least a socially acceptable way, because if a neighbor has no access to adequate food to ask them whether they need someone to pick up food for them and drop it off on their property without any contact shopping is an issue. And most of the food services in our area have been, the stores have been incredibly careful about social distancing and masking and protecting both the work of the essential workers in the stores, as well as the customers. But social interaction really has been compromised by the stresses of COVID-19. We have a very important role in ensuring that people who have emotional distress have access to some resources. There actually is a helpline from the state for COVID resources. And there are resources available through public health, as well as the state. You can reach the Sullivan County website, which is SullivanNY.us and get the list of the available numbers to access both emotional, medical, food sources, and the resources of our public health services department. That’s a wonderful resource. It also gives you a daily update on the status of the infection within our County, the number of cases, the number of screenings, the number of hospitalizations. So if people are curious about their area and also want to know whether we are keeping up with adequate sharing of information, it’s all there. It’s all out in the open for people to see.
Meaghan Mullally-Gorr:
Is there anything great or maybe even just good that has come out of this?
Dr. Bruce Ellsweig:
Well, the good that Karen and I have had, we should have more time to spend together at home. I think that some people have found resources within their family structure, to just to go home and actually be able to hug someone when you can’t touch people outside of your home. That’s a positive thing. Reestablishing the intimacy of relationships that may have been separated by jobs or by fear is critically important as well.
Meaghan Mullally-Gorr:
Do you have any recommendations to keep County residents healthy?
Dr. Bruce Ellsweig:
The most important things that you can exercise are common sense using a mask, social distancing, washing, avoiding crowds, being conscious of those people around you and, despite protests encouraging other people to wear masks who are not wearing them.
Meaghan Mullally-Gorr:
Anything that you would like to add?
Dr. Bruce Ellsweig:
We’re a community. We need to take care of each other. We need to take care of ourselves and by respecting the distancing and the masks and by hand-washing, you’re not only protecting yourself, you’re protecting your neighbors and protecting your community. You’re protecting your resources. As far as getting food, healthcare, all of the services that we all need and just exercise those precautions, hopefully will keep New York successful and staying at all very low infection rates. Since we’ve been at less than 5% positives, the governor has allowed us to open up a great deal of services that we can provide, including schools. We’re not over this yet. I would encourage people to do the appropriate things with their immunizations in the fall, getting a flu shot for those who qualify getting their pneumonia vaccine and their shingles vaccine, doing the appropriate things that are important for prevention, we will have no real easy way to distinguish between the flu and COVID-19. So this is a potential complicating factor in the fall. So please get the flu shot more often than not. It doesn’t require a visit with your clinician. It can be done through a flu clinic at your pharmacy at your supermarket, but certainly at our office where we offer it. And Crystal Run has been ahead of the curve as far as making sure that it’s a safe environment for our people to come in, to be seen by their clinicians.
Meaghan Mullally-Gorr:
Thank you, both Karen and Bruce for joining us today. Thank you so much for all of your work for Sullivan County and Sullivan 180. You both wear so many hats and we’re really very lucky to have you. Thank you again.
Dr. Bruce Ellsweig:
And we’re lucky to have you as well, and please be safe and be careful.
Transcript of Interview with Dr. Bruce Ellsweig
November 10, 2020
Meaghan Mullally-Gorr:
Hi, I’m Meaghan Mullally-Gorr. Welcome to Sullivan 180 Presents Take Five!. Our guests today are Dr. Bruce Ellsweig and Mrs. Karen Ellsweig. Welcome. Thank you both for joining us today, Dr. Ellsweig, tell us about your current positions and or organizations, and maybe mention a little bit about how you’re involved with Sullivan 180.
Dr. Bruce Ellsweig:
I’m a physician, I’m a family doc at Crystal Run Healthcare, I’m board certified in family medicine and hospice and palliative care. I’m the chairman of a public health advisory committee for the Sullivan County public health services. And I’m also the medical director for Sullivan County public health services.
Meaghan Mullally-Gorr:
What has it been like being a physician during the COVID-19 pandemic? How has your day to day changed?
Dr. Bruce Ellsweig:
So please call me Bruce. The entire structure of access to our practice changed because of COVID, there’s screening, there’s access limitation. If you’ve had any symptoms related to COVID, we don’t allow people to enter the building. We screen them when they schedule, we screen them when they arrive to the office, we do temperature checks before entering the building. The other thing that has developed has certainly been tele-health. Tele-health is both a blessing and a curse sometimes. It allows us to communicate with the people who need our services, but it takes away the intimacy of the touch and the body language relationship that is so important to a primary care physician, but we do a great deal of telehealth and it has provided people who normally wouldn’t have access to have a fear of exposure or who have had symptoms and cannot enter the building to communicate with us, to have medications refill, to screen their chronic illnesses and to participate in their health care. So that’s been the major change that we’ve had structurally in our practice. Certainly people, particularly those people who are in the most vulnerable populations have had a great deal of fear about leaving their homes for the last six months. So it’s been an incredible challenge to try to get them to deal with their healthcare issues, to maintain their active medications, to make sure that they have even adequate resources for feeding for social interaction on some level. So it it’s both medical, social, emotional, all of these things thrown into the basket of dealing with COVID-19.
Meaghan Mullally-Gorr:
Do you find that when you are encouraging people to have the social connections that they have the resources to do? So have they maybe reached out to family and friends over the telephone or over zoom? Do they have those resources to reach out to others being nervous and at home?
Dr. Bruce Ellsweig:
Some people do, but as you know, we have a compromised broadband, so zoom is not available for many people in Sullivan County. Certainly I encourage people to interact with their families, interact with their friends, interact with their neighbors, and at least a socially acceptable way, because if a neighbor has no access to adequate food to ask them whether they need someone to pick up food for them and drop it off on their property without any contact shopping is an issue. And most of the food services in our area have been, the stores have been incredibly careful about social distancing and masking and protecting both the work of the essential workers in the stores, as well as the customers. But social interaction really has been compromised by the stresses of COVID-19. We have a very important role in ensuring that people who have emotional distress have access to some resources. There actually is a helpline from the state for COVID resources. And there are resources available through public health, as well as the state. You can reach the Sullivan County website, which is SullivanNY.us and get the list of the available numbers to access both emotional, medical, food sources, and the resources of our public health services department. That’s a wonderful resource. It also gives you a daily update on the status of the infection within our County, the number of cases, the number of screenings, the number of hospitalizations. So if people are curious about their area and also want to know whether we are keeping up with adequate sharing of information, it’s all there. It’s all out in the open for people to see.
Meaghan Mullally-Gorr:
Is there anything great or maybe even just good that has come out of this?
Dr. Bruce Ellsweig:
Well, the good that Karen and I have had, we should have more time to spend together at home. I think that some people have found resources within their family structure, to just to go home and actually be able to hug someone when you can’t touch people outside of your home. That’s a positive thing. Reestablishing the intimacy of relationships that may have been separated by jobs or by fear is critically important as well.
Meaghan Mullally-Gorr:
Do you have any recommendations to keep County residents healthy?
Dr. Bruce Ellsweig:
The most important things that you can exercise are common sense using a mask, social distancing, washing, avoiding crowds, being conscious of those people around you and, despite protests encouraging other people to wear masks who are not wearing them.
Meaghan Mullally-Gorr:
Anything that you would like to add?
Dr. Bruce Ellsweig:
We’re a community. We need to take care of each other. We need to take care of ourselves and by respecting the distancing and the masks and by hand-washing, you’re not only protecting yourself, you’re protecting your neighbors and protecting your community. You’re protecting your resources. As far as getting food, healthcare, all of the services that we all need and just exercise those precautions, hopefully will keep New York successful and staying at all very low infection rates. Since we’ve been at less than 5% positives, the governor has allowed us to open up a great deal of services that we can provide, including schools. We’re not over this yet. I would encourage people to do the appropriate things with their immunizations in the fall, getting a flu shot for those who qualify getting their pneumonia vaccine and their shingles vaccine, doing the appropriate things that are important for prevention, we will have no real easy way to distinguish between the flu and COVID-19. So this is a potential complicating factor in the fall. So please get the flu shot more often than not. It doesn’t require a visit with your clinician. It can be done through a flu clinic at your pharmacy at your supermarket, but certainly at our office where we offer it. And Crystal Run has been ahead of the curve as far as making sure that it’s a safe environment for our people to come in, to be seen by their clinicians.
Meaghan Mullally-Gorr:
Thank you, both Karen and Bruce for joining us today. Thank you so much for all of your work for Sullivan County and Sullivan 180. You both wear so many hats and we’re really very lucky to have you. Thank you again.
Dr. Bruce Ellsweig:
And we’re lucky to have you as well, and please be safe and be careful.
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