At the hospital, procedure volumes have increased significantly as we assist patients who have had to delay their diagnostic and therapeutic surgical interventions. Off-site laboratory services have opened as has imaging at all locations. Rehabilitation therapy, wound care, sleep lab, pain center, pulmonary testing, etc. are all ramping back up. Physician practice are nearing 80% capacity (much of it virtual in nature). All services are screening patients, keeping waiting rooms empty, and limiting visitors to one caregiver per patient in outpatient settings. Social distancing, face coverings, hand washing and other essentials of disease mitigation are in place. On the personnel side, we have removed travel and vacation restrictions and begun limited on-site interviewing of new physician and staff recruits.
The Respiratory Triage Clinic has temporarily shifted focus to testing of pre-surgery patients resulting in exceptionally high volumes through the clinic.
Our re-opening plan has multiple stages with the following still to come:
- End-of-May or early-June ramp up: limited services at the Wellness Centers, essential volunteers return to the hospital, limited Healthy365 activities
- Mid-June to early-July: community education classes resume, Gateway Immediate Care re-opens, Triage Clinic name change, Healthy365 full-service resumes
- Late Summer to early Fall: Volunteers back in place, student workers back in place, valet (or equivalent services) resumes, community events resume
We have added significant resources on re-opening for all organizations and these are available in a toolkit on our dedicated website and we encourage you to take a look at that material: https://coronavirus.hancockregionalhospital.org/