Indiana’s COVID-19 Response
Partner: State of Indiana
Time Frame: 2020-2021
Reflecting on Indiana’s Response to the Pandemic
Through the trials that a pandemic presents, Indiana was well equipped with useable data to support our frontline health workers. As a state, we saw the willingness of healthcare and layperson volunteers to fill in the gaps that the pandemic left in our workforce.
Using the “Rise up, Respond, and Reinforce” messaging, a total of 15,852 healthcare and 976 healthcare students signed up to the Indiana COVID-19 Reserve.
Later, during the second peak, a total of 8,257 individuals signed up to the “refresh reserve.” Over half of these reservists were actively practicing healthcare professionals (51.1%), while 14.7% were retired health care professionals. Another 8.8% were healthcare students, and over 20% were non-healthcare students or general volunteers.
Key Takeaways
There are many things that Indiana did well and also room for improvement.
Considerations for the Future
– Nursing homes care for vulnerable populations and considerations should be made on how to better protect residents and relieve an already taxed long term care health workforce.
– Indiana’s health care workers were willing to serve in response to the pandemic, but a coordinated and timely response is necessary to connect the volunteers to places in need.
– Indiana’s Workforce Data Infrastructure was crucial in the midst of the pandemic. It should be a priority to maintain.