Page 16 - LRCC July 2020 Focus

Tico Duckett
FROM CRISIS

TO RECOVERY

“It put us out of business for three months,” said
Matthew Ryan Clouse, owner, Matthew Ryan
Salon & Spa. “There is only so much you can do
in your business as far as preparedness goes, and
a pandemic will throw all of that off.”

Clouse says his industry has long-established
sanitary practices to present infectious diseases.
His salon has put some additional practices
in place to keep everyone safe and feels good
about coming into the salon, including social
distancing, requirements to wear a mask, and
paperless transactions. For some clients who
still may not feel totally safe, Clouse says they
would consider some extended hours.

“It is all about communication with your clients,”
said Clouse. “We are set up, and in place to move very efficiently with the Medical. “I continued to see patients almost exclusively in person because there
procedures we have in place.” are people even during a pandemic that need to personally see a doctor. The
other two providers did telehealth visits. This allowed us to take care of patients
Lansing-based Niowave is a domestic supplier of medical and industrial with mild health needs remotely without exposing them to unnecessary risks.”
radioisotopes from uranium and radium. The business of operating particle
accelerators requires most team members to be on site. About 20% of the staff Since insurance reimbursement for telehealth is limited, Care Free was able to
worked from home the first few days, but company president Mike Zamiara receive a grant from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund to cover the cost
said those employees eventually had to be called back into the office. One of the to provide these services to insured and uninsured patients. Care Free was one
biggest challenges was anxiety levels on the staff early in the week after being of the first organizations to receive a PPP loan, which allowed them to maintain
home listening to all the news about COVID-19 over the weekend. payroll during the pandemic.

“We have a highly intelligent workforce and we had everybody reading Care Free had to close two of its three clinics – its dental and optometry clinics
everything,” said Zamiara. “The anxiety level on Monday mornings was sky- – which Dr. Bhatti says resulted in at least a 30% decline in revenues.
high for everybody. Usually, by Tuesday afternoon everything would settle down,
and people would be able to focus more on the importance of their work. That “We provide comprehensive physical and mental health care to adults and
was a cycle every single week for a while.” children of all ages,” said Dr. Bhatti. “Now that we are fully reopened, we can
again provide medical, dental, optometry, and mental health services to those
Though Niowave remained in full operation during the pandemic, some of who are most in need in the Metro Lansing community.”
their partners with national laboratories were not. Niowave also works with
several universities including MSU, Purdue and U of M, which were all closed.
That delayed progress on a few key initiatives.
The Current Environment:
“It changed how we could move projects forward without them being able to do New Opportunities
some of the hands-on research,” said Zamiara. “They walked us through how
to do some it and we were able to do it here. That slowed us down. We were The new phase or reopening of the economy will mean further adjustments for
expecting to be doing some pre-clinical work with a couple of different isotopes organizations in every sector of the economy. The new era also represents new
by now. That work probably won’t happen until mid to late summer.” opportunities and will require some new thinking.

Care Free Medical provides medical, dental, optometry, and behavioral health Rapidly growing Niowave had to adjust hiring plans because of the pandemic.
care to people with limited access to the healthcare system. As a medical provider, Four people were hired through interviews on Zoom or Webex, a couple of
COVID-19 brought some unique challenges. The company completely whom have already started.
revamped policies and procedures to screen patients for symptoms when they
called to schedule appointments. All the rooms at the clinics are now sterilized “We’ll probably get even more creative in the next few months by doing some
before and after each encounter. Care Free also implemented telehealth services. interviews with five or six people at a time to talk about positions we have open,”
said Zamiara.
“We have three full-time providers, me, and another physician plus a nurse
practitioner, “said Dr. Farhan Bhatti, CEO and medical director, Care Free Zamiara expects to increase utilization of online communications tools like Zoom

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