Where Are All the Patients? Addressing Covid-19 Fear to Encourage Sick Patients to Seek Emergency Care

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Leaders at a 150-bed community hospital in California partnered with a collective of human-centered designers to rapidly address a sudden drop in emergency department visits after a statewide stay-at-home order was issued. The initiative developed targeted messaging to assuage patient fears about safety and remind patients not to ignore heart and stroke symptoms.