BEND, Ore. — The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) has notified St. Charles Redmond that all COVID-19 tests in the previous 14 days related to the Redmond outbreak resulted negative, prompting the agency to lift the COVID-19 “outbreak” status of the hospital.
The health system’s investigation of the outbreak, which was traced to 28 people including 25 caregivers, revealed the source was a COVID-positive patient.
Though the outbreak has resolved, many of the changes instituted at the Redmond hospital remain in effect, including:
- Increasing air exchanges to at least six times per hour, and even more frequently in patient rooms
- Increasing air filtration to more than the CDC recommendation (+90% filtration at .3 microns)
- Instructing caregivers who are within an arm’s length of a patient with respiratory symptoms for more than 15 minutes to use N95 respirators and eye protection throughout their shift while the outbreak is ongoing
- Adding hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies to more locations throughout the facility
- Asking caregivers to eat in the cafeteria or on the outside patio rather than in break rooms to create a larger space between caregivers when their masks are down
- Reducing maximum capacity in all break rooms and conference rooms to ensure physical distancing can be maintained
Starting Wednesday, visitation restrictions will be lifted to allow one visitor per patient, per day.
“I have been impressed by the commitment and resilience of the Redmond community, caregivers, patients and their families to come together and comply with enhanced restrictions so we could resolve the outbreak as quickly as possible,” said St. Charles Redmond Chief Nursing Officer James Reedy. “We have learned lessons that we will continue to practice.”
About St. Charles Health System
St. Charles Health System, Inc., headquartered in Bend, Ore., owns and operates St. Charles Bend, Madras, Prineville and Redmond. It also owns family care clinics in Bend, La Pine, Madras, Prineville, Redmond and Sisters. St. Charles is a private, not-for-profit Oregon corporation and is the largest employer in Central Oregon with more than 4,500 caregivers. In addition, there are more than 350 active medical staff members and nearly 200 visiting medical staff members who partner with the health system to provide a wide range of care and service to our communities.
