- [Woman] Wheelan-Pressley Funeral Home and Crematory, a proud supporter of WQPT, has been serving Quad City families since 1889.

They now have live stream capabilities for viewing your loved one's funeral or memorial service.

- [Man] At IHMVCU we've always been here for you, you are and always will be our top priority, we care about your financial and physical health, and we are here.

IHMVCU is a proud supporter of WQPT.

- The era of COVID and respect, and taking the stage for a play that simply goes wrong in The Cities.

(upbeat music) We're entering the third year of a global pandemic with frustration and anger.

If it isn't the masks, it would be the vaccines.

If it isn't the variants, one after another, it would be the daily bombardment of the coverage.

And often caught in the middle of it all are healthcare workers.

This month, tempers flared outside one hospital as people waited in hours-long lines for testing, only to find out they weren't even eligible to be tested.

But that's just one example in the Quad Cities.

Doctors have seen countless others.

And we talked about that with the incoming President of the Illinois State Medical Society, Dr. Clarence Brown.

Are you seeing that?

Have you talked to your colleagues?

Are people just becoming more frustrated and taking it out on their healthcare providers?

- Thank you very much for inviting me.

And sadly, frustration is growing throughout the American public, and throughout the healthcare workers are experiencing that frustration.

And yes, regrettably, it is becoming more of a challenge on a day by day basis helping to navigate the pandemic.

- Is that some way unprecedented?

- Well, with respect to precedent in general we haven't had a worldwide pandemic such as this for nearly 100 years, over 100 years.

And navigating something this challenging with this much pressure and stress I think is difficult for everyone.

- And in this society now is it more difficult for physicians such as yourself and your colleagues to actually discuss the issue of COVID with your patients, because some are just going to deny it or say, "I read something differently on the internet"?

- I mean you raise an excellent question, there is an abundance of information that is available at our fingertips now on the internet, a great deal of which is credible, it's vetted, it's very helpful, particularly with respect to COVID.

But there is some information that's not as well-vetted and doesn't have the same level of credibility.

And when the public relies on information that isn't coming from reliable sources it can create a great deal of confusion, uncertainty, and contribute to stress.

- And you're facing sometimes people who are in total denial that in some cases that the COVID-19 even exists, or that it's just really a mild case, which for some people it is, and that it shouldn't be taken so seriously.

What have you seen after... We're now entering the third year of a pandemic.

What have you seen as far as COVID-19 and the seriousness of it?

- Well, throughout the state of Illinois and our country, and around the world, we have seen as healthcare providers waves of illness as new variants of COVID have emerged and lead to increased incidence of illness, hospitalizations, and regrettably death.

So this is a serious disease that should be taken very seriously.

Fortunately, the most recent variant, the Omicron variant has much less likelihood of causing serious illness and death to those that are vaccinated.

It still presents itself to be a very serious risk for those that have immunocompromised immune systems and those that have other health issues that make them have a higher likelihood of developing serious illness.

- Tell me about the medical community.

I mean, everyone is tired of COVID-19.

I'd assume that people that are on the frontline of treating it are as well.

There's got to be a certain level of burnout among doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers.

- Certainly.

Burnout is a serious issue in the healthcare arena right now for healthcare workers.

Not only doctors and nurses, but all of the staff that support the efforts that we put forward to try to help safeguard the American public.

By some estimates, one in five members of the healthcare sector have left their employment, and that's placing added burden and added stress on the entire ability to handle the challenges of the pandemic.

- And we've seen time and again the need for nurses, I mean even before the pandemic.

How critically important is it now for people to get involved in the healthcare field?

- Well, I agree that there is critical need now.

We are certainly understaffed, undermanned, underwomaned with respect to the needs before us.

However, healthcare is as a pipeline it's a long process to train a nurse, an even longer process to train a doctor.

So we're talking years to get people from their secondary education in high school through a college degree onto some graduate education and then into the workforce.

So it is a long process.

- Medical Society has always been involved in that pipeline.

I mean, trying to get new doctors, trying to get people into the field.

What does it look like that pipeline in five years future?

- Well, that's also a great question that early in the pandemic there was an increase and interest in nursing and medicine as careers.

There was a large influx of applicants for the available seats in nursing schools and medical schools.

But that was balanced by a great number of existing healthcare providers leaving the field due to their own age, and perhaps due to some of their own health pre-existing conditions and health concerns.

And so that's balanced.

However, as the pandemic continues and healthcare workers feel the stress of the pandemic that's only exacerbated by the American public taking their stress out on healthcare workers, those numbers are shifting in the opposite direction.

- Always has been a problem also in rural areas throughout Illinois, well, let's say throughout America finding enough physicians to treat people who don't live in urban areas.

Is that still becoming a critical issue in Illinois?

- Yes, that's actually quite an important issue in the state of Illinois.

There is a projected shortage of physicians for our nation, and that will be amplified and the magnitude will be far greater in rural America, particularly in Illinois.

The Medical Society, the Illinois State Medical Society with Illinois physicians, has invested in a program called the Rural Illinois Medical Student Program, RIMSAP, which actually helps to fund through low cost loans the engagement of medical students with the goal of having them remain in rural Illinois to practice after medical school.

- We've seen so many places trying to do stuff like that, not only physicians, but you think of teachers as well, getting them into the rural area.

How successful has that been so far?

- It has been a very successful program actually.

It has led to dozens of medical students going through medical school, then residency programs and then remaining in rural Illinois.

It's been coupled with a program that promotes placing advanced practice nurses in rural Illinois as well.

So it is a program that the Illinois State Medical Society sees as a real win for the residents of Illinois.

- One of the things the pandemic has amplified I guess, is the need for telehealth, that you don't necessarily go to the doctor's office, you can get information online with a doctor or via Zoom call like we're doing right now, or even by telephone in some cases.

I know that the medical society had some concerns about telehealth.

Do you see that that's going to be more prevalent as we move forward?

- Yes, telehealth actually has really emerged as a value leader for Americans throughout the pandemic, and especially for residents of Illinois.

What the Medical Society has advocated for and Illinois legislators have passed is parity for reimbursement for telehealth services when compared to in person or in vivo, in real life services.

So moving forward, whether one sees their physician or healthcare provider in person or via telehealth, that reimbursement should be the same.

So this should promote access, and particularly access into rural areas where some specialists and different types of physicians are less available.

- Well, that's what I was thinking exactly is in the rural areas where you're looking for more doctors, this is at least part of a solution, but also it's I would assume telehealth is really valuable for follow up for the person who already had seen their physician and just needs to get an update with the physician.

Instead of going all the way to the office, it could be done this way.

- I absolutely agree.

Now as a practicing dermatologist, which is my field, dermatology, telehealth is extremely helpful for follow ups when we're treating acne or eczema.

It does have some challenges.

It doesn't allow me to do a biopsy.

It doesn't allow me to take a sample or to freeze a lesion.

But it can be very helpful in that follow up arena.

- One other area, doctor is of course, opioids.

It was overprescribed.

People are now looking back going, "Wow, this has really done damage to the American public."

As far as the Medical Society is concerned, I mean, you guys have really taken a stance on the use of opioids as well.

- Correct.

We acknowledge how regrettable and sad it is the influence of these opioids on both Americans as a society and with respect to their healthcare.

Now, as physicians, we were sold a tainted bill of sale with these opioids when they were introduced, that they were going to be less addictive, and they were going to have less risk for harm and side effects, and that really didn't play out.

So Pharma certainly wasn't speaking the truth with respect to those issues.

Now, on an annual basis, all physicians in Illinois are required to take three hours of continuing medical education with respect to opioids and their prescriptive use to try to further stay the effects of the opioid impact.

- When you think of medical care there's so many different pillars, there's the patient, there's the doctor of course, and then that third pillar is the insurance company.

And I know that doctors have been fighting insurance companies for as long as insurance companies have existed.

And one of the big wins you're saying was changes as far as prior authorization, that a person has to get approval for a procedure before seeing their physician.

- Yes, effective January of this year there's new legislation in the state of Illinois that makes the process of prior authorization streamlined, easier, and definitely well-defined.

So it limits 48 hours to be the duration for a decision to be made by an insurer with respect to an urgent need for prior authorization.

Five business days...

I'm sorry, five calendar days for non-urgent prior authorization.

And once a prior authorization is given for a particular treatment, and the patient even has a change in insurance that previous prior authorization travels with them to their new insurer.

And furthermore, the prior authorization is based on a peer to peer review process where it's a physician in the same field or specialty of treatment is making a decision about the appropriateness of that prescriptive choice or that therapeutic choice.

- We're starting a new year 2022, of course, and one thing that the Medical Society is really trying to get out is, "If you haven't had a doctor's appointment, "make a doctor's appointment."

There are procedures that have been delayed.

There are people who have said, "I'm worried about COVID.

"I don't want to even go to a doctor's office."

You're really stressing that people have to take care of their total care now.

- Absolutely.

The Medical Society and the Physicians of Illinois are emphasizing to all residents of Illinois that it's important to continue with routine follow up with routine medical care, especially preventative care.

I want to encourage all of your listeners to think about the fact that your doctor and your doctor's office is one of the safest places you can go.

Your doctor knows better than almost every other type of business or entity out there how best to keep you safe from illness and diseases including COVID-19.

In my own experience as a dermatologist we are seeing people that haven't been back to our office for two or three years and some of them are presenting with advanced skin cancer and advanced melanomas that we could have actually intervened if caught earlier and may have even been life saving.

So putting off routine care is only going to lead to greater harm down the road.

- The incoming President of the Illinois State Medical Society, Dr. Clarence Brown.

In a moment, seeing a play that falls apart right in front of your eyes.

But Laura Adams also says that's just one of the great area events you might be interested in if you go out and about.

(upbeat music) - [Laura] This is Out & About for January 13th through 20th.

It's time for the Rod & Custom Car Show coming to the Bend XPO Center in East Moline January 14th through 16th.

While Icestravaganza returns to the Freight House in LeClaire Park with sculptures illuminated each night from dusk to 10:00.

Or train with the pros at the Quad City United Youth Basketball Camp at Friendly House January 15th at 10:30.

Boy Scout Troop 109 hosts their fourth annual Ben Rogers Chili Cook Off the 15th at Culemans Hall in Moline.

Try all the chilies for $5 and get ready for the holiday Ho-Ho-Hoedown at Skellington Manor as It's A Mystery celebrates January 15th.

Reservations required.

The Polyrhythms Third Sunday Jazz Series featuring the Iowa Jazz Composers Orchestra at Redstone Room happens January 16th from 5:00 to 7:00.

Circa 21's newest offering is the hilarious comedy The Play That Goes Wrong, where everything that can go wrong does.

Improvisational comedy is on tap January 15th with GIT at The Black Box Theater in Moline.

Tickets are $10.

And The Bucktown Revue rings in the new year the 21st featuring John Phillips, the Front Porch Pickers and the Miracle Bluegrass Band.

While musicians from the Clinton Symphony Orchestra perform chamber music at the Zion Lutheran Church on January 16th at 2:00.

Plus Medea completes its run at the Brunner Theatre Center on the campus of Augustana College.

For more information visit wqpt.org.

- Thank you, Laura.

Rebecca Casad and Alan Morrison are a ukulele duo who take an interesting twist on five decades of popular music.

This duo joined us at the River Music Experience to form one of their original work.

So here's Casad and Morrison with Every Day of the Year.

(lively ukulele music) ♪ Never dreamed of a place ♪ ♪ Where all I did was look in your eyes ♪ ♪ I never wanted a land where you would be mine ♪ ♪ But despite all the poking and prodding ♪ ♪ And pretending the other ain't there ♪ ♪ I still find myself next to you every day of the year ♪ ♪ I watch the light as it comes through my window ♪ ♪ And watch it sparkle acrossed your hair ♪ ♪ And know that you must be one in a million ♪ ♪ But discovering someone brand new ♪ ♪ And teaching myself how to care ♪ ♪ I still find myself next to you every day of the year ♪ ♪ And even though we fight sometimes ♪ ♪ I know we'll make it through ♪ ♪ My strength to wake up every day ♪ ♪ Seems to always come from you ♪ ♪ I find myself next to you ♪ ♪ Though the darkness seems to find us ♪ ♪ We have the strength to carry on ♪ ♪ We must be so much more than this moment ♪ ♪ So despite all the fears and the trials ♪ ♪ I know somehow we'll make it there ♪ ♪ And I'll find myself next to you every day of the year ♪ ♪ Yes I find myself next to you ♪ ♪ Every day of the year ♪ - Casad and Morrison with Every Day of the Year.

Circa 21 is ready to kick off 2022 by staging a disaster.

I mean, everything goes wrong, but that's the way it's supposed to be with a performance called The Play That Goes Wrong.

And we talked with Brett Hitchcock about what's literally hitting the stage.

So this month we are starting with The Play That Goes Wrong.

How will the audience know if there's actually a mistake being made?

- I don't think they will, Jim.

This is it is such a unique piece of theater.

And it's a very, very complicated show to put together because there's so many things going on as you alluded to a minute ago.

I mean, there's people that are going up on lines that are on there, and it's just one disaster after the next and parts of the set fall, literally fall during the show.

So it's just such a unique piece and I don't think the audience is gonna know if something goes wrong that may not already be planned.

- Well, let's be honest- - Or pre-planned.

- The title of the play: The Play That Goes Wrong just says it all.

- Absolutely.

- And you kind of imagine how much fun that would be.

But here's the thing that I would think would be fun for actors and the people that do the production is that it's kind of inside baseball.

I mean, everything that's happened there must have probably happened in real life to somebody.

- I think so.

I think that people in theater will really appreciate it.

But what we have found is several of our staff members saw it in London and also New York, and said it's one of the funniest things they've ever seen.

And I think as you start looking through the promo material as we were getting that months ago, and just looking at all of the awards that this show has won, both in London and in New York and really all over the world, it's just amazing that yes, I think if you're in theater maybe it resonates more and the tech weeks and how difficult those can be.

But I think that as a general audience member too it's just going to be wonderfully funny to... How many times do you see a show where the set's collapsing or paintings are falling off the wall or there's a fight or...

The best description I saw of this show is kind of a combination of Monty Python and Sherlock Holmes.

And I think if that's how you come into it then you're in for a really great time.

- Yeah, absolutely.

And is it also nice to be staging right now?

I mean, that's an obvious answer to that question, but every production that you do right now you can no longer take for granted because of what's happened over the last two years.

- Absolutely not.

I mean, we are literally going day by day.

I mean, as this new.... As part of the COVID has started to come through and we've had more and more staff members more now than we've had almost for two years that have gone down with COVID.

And we've got lots of policies in place for testing and they're quarantined before they come back.

But it's we take nothing for granted at this point.

And I think we're day by day.

We're testing the actors multiple times a week.

We're testing the staff.

I mean, we just... Because one person goes down and the whole operation is closed, so we- - Yeah, I mean that's a big, big deal.

And tell me this, because I mean we always know that actors are hungry for the next role.

I mean, coming out of COVID, and I know that we're not out of it as you were alluding the Omicron variant having an impact even today, but they must be so much more hungry to get a good role?

- I think so, and we're hiring more local people now.

We do bill ourselves as hiring professionals, and we do have several people that flew in from out of town.

I think we just had our last cast member got in the other day from the West Coast.

But I think that everybody is hungry to do a show, and because things have been gone for so long now.

Again, we've been fairly lucky around here that most of our great theaters in this market have been able to operate over the last year, which is great.

But again, there's no guarantees.

You can go into the show, be in the middle of a rehearsal, and the whole thing gets shut down, or you always are... We're kind of waiting for the governor to do something again.

You never know when that's going to come.

So again, I think the only way that you can operate with most businesses probably these days is just a day by day thing and just keep your fingers crossed.

- Well, Circa 21 was always known for its buffet as well as the plays.

Now the buffet is gone, you're doing table serving.

What else is different as far as the guests are concerned?

- Well, I think that's the big thing for us.

And that has been something that we were discussing pre-COVID that so many of our audience members were coming in and wanted more of a dining experience.

And I think as you look in the landscape of restaurants and buffets specifically, most of those have gone away.

I mean, there's a few buffet places left in town, just a couple of Chinese restaurants, and there's a place I think over by 50... Golden Corral, I think over at 53rd in Davenport is still open, but for the most part buffets have gone away.

People want more of a dining experience.

And so that's COVID was one of those things where we just kind of took that and ran with it, and decided to go ahead and implement it at that point.

It did make it easier because we could not... We didn't have enough staff to do the buffets, so there were several things that kind of played right into maybe this is the time to just go ahead and take the plunge and do it.

And for the most part, we've had really positive feedback to it.

There are some that prefer the buffets and we understand that, but just as far as food costs and staffing and things like that, I think that this has been a really good move for us and will be going forward.

It also allows us to put some things on the menu that we would never have been able to otherwise on a buffet, like for example, for the first time ever we have steak on the menu for The Play That Goes Wrong.

We have swordfish, we've never done that before.

So it's giving us an opportunity to really put on some nicer entree items that I think people are gonna really enjoy.

- Well, as long as we're talking about entrees, Just Desserts, is that a nice segue?

- Yeah, it was.

It was perfect.

- It's coming up in March.

It's a musical.

I mean, the show must go on.

You've got other things in the pipeline.

- Yep, oh, yeah, we've got lots of things going on.

Just Desserts starts our new season in March.

We've got a children's show opening mid April.

We've got some concerts coming up in March.

So we're trying to do everything we can in a safe manner to keep the doors open and keep people coming in and keep them entertained.

- Yeah, I was looking at your March calendar, in one of them you're also doing tributes.

You've got a John Denver tribute in April, but you got Barbra Streisand coming up.

- We do, yeah.

It's a wonderful lady named Patty Peterson from Minneapolis, and she'll be here on March 31st for two shows.

She has done it at a couple of big regional theaters in Minneapolis, this tribute to Barbra Streisand.

Apparently, it's just a dynamite show.

Some friends of ours that own a couple of theaters up there have recommended her highly.

And so we were able to negotiate that thankfully, and have her come down in March to do a couple of shows here for us.

- And as you said, I mean, you do have a children's show, it's called Grace for President and that's coming up in April.

I mean, is it really still critically important to make sure that you get the kids in the theater as well?

- Absolutely, I mean even more so now than ever because that's our future, and we need to get them in.

We need to get them experience to experience live theater to see how much fun it is.

And hopefully it's one of those things that they'll continue to enjoy into their high school years in either participating in their high school theater programs or some of the local community theaters or auditioning here.

So that's always critically important to doing those kids shows is making sure that we do those and that we keep those young folks exposed to live theater.

- Well, Brett, I know that you like being in the building and saying hi to some of the patrons that come in, some of the new faces that you see, some of the old faces that you see.

What has it been like with people coming back?

I mean, they must be saying, "I don't want to be inside the house anymore.

"I've seen enough on Netflix.

"I've streamed everything that exists."

- Yep, that's really it.

I mean, I think they're just excited to be back.

I think it kind of goes like a roller coaster, and people are really excited.

And then when the Omicron thing came through, I mean people are a little bit more...

They're a little more concerned now which is understandable.

May not be comfortable coming right now.

And based on what the state has given us for guidelines, we are still utilizing all of our tables, but we are requiring that they wear a mask when they're up and moving around.

So we are still taking their safety into account, but I think for some people maybe they're just not ready yet or they're concerned or they're compromised in some way where they'd be more...

The opportunity to catch COVID is greater for them, and they just want to stay away, and that's fine.

But the people that are coming are really enjoying it, they're glad to be out.

They really feel like we are keeping them safe.

I mean, I know that everyone's tired of wearing a mask, and we understand that but it's what we need to do to hopefully eventually eradicate this thing along with the shots and the boosters and everything else.

And so we're trying to do our part here to take care of that and keep people safe when they're here and keep our staff safe.

- Brett Hitchcock from Circa 21.

On the air, on the radio, on the web, on your mobile device and streaming on your computer.

Thanks for taking some time to join us as we talk about the issues on The Cities.

(upbeat music) - [Woman] Wheelan-Pressley Funeral Home and Crematory, a proud supporter of WQPT, has been serving Quad City families since 1889.

They now have live stream capabilities for viewing your loved one's funeral or memorial service.

- [Man] At IHMVCU we've always been here for you, you are and always will be our top priority, we care about your financial and physical health, and we are here.

IHMVCU is a proud supporter of WQPT.