The arrival of COVID-19 in Central Oregon has already forced us to make some tough decisions at St. Charles. And we are not done making them. More are coming as more COVID-19 cases are discovered in our region.
Here’s the good news: We have the right people making these decisions. They are smart, experienced and dedicated to the well-being of the communities we serve. They’re also prepared. As I told you in my last message, we’ve been planning for this outbreak for months.
Right now, our most urgent priority is keeping our frontline caregivers healthy and our facilities safe and functioning so we can deal with COVID-19 cases, as well as all the people who come to us with other medical issues. We need to continue to care for all, including pregnant women, trauma patients and people with cancer or heart disease. Those things will not stop because there’s a global pandemic.
Protecting our health care resources is very much at the heart of some of our recent decisions:
Visitor restrictions
Simply put, we cannot allow most visitors to St. Charles hospitals at this time. It is crucial that we limit who is entering our facilities, for both the safety of the people working inside and for the health of our community.
There are a few exceptions. But for the foreseeable future, we must tightly enforce these restrictions, including our new rule that no visitors below age 12 be allowed on premises and that no visitors will be allowed for patients in isolation for infection prevention.
If you have a loved one at a St. Charles hospital, we understand you may have a very strong desire to come see them in person. For now, please use the telephone or video to call them. Our caregivers can help get them connected to our Wi-Fi if needed.
Elective surgeries
All elective surgeries and other select non-urgent outpatient services have been postponed through March 28 to free up as much space as possible in our facilities and to preserve critical supplies in case there is a surge of COVID-19 patients.
We understand this decision will cause inconvenience and frustration for people whose surgeries and services must be rescheduled. Please know we’re doing it to protect you and your loved ones, and we certainly wouldn’t take this step if we didn’t think it was an important part of our preparedness plan.
Patients impacted by this decision will be contacted by St. Charles or their physician to discuss next steps.
Testing
The swabs we use to test for COVID-19 are running very low throughout the state of Oregon, and we believe it is unlikely that we’ll be able to get more. Therefore, we simply cannot test people who are worried but feel fine.
This is important to remember: If you have symptoms of COVID-19 (cough, fever, shortness of breath) but you are not so sick you need hospitalization, the best thing you can do is stay home and call your primary care physician or your county’s public health department.
That brings me to a term that may be new to you: social distancing. Not only do we need you to stay away from St. Charles unless you are a patient in need of hospitalization, we need you to stay away from each other. Social distancing means staying away from each other, especially by avoiding public gatherings and public places.
This is not a joke. It’s not “just a suggestion.” Social distancing is the one thing that experts say will help the most in combating the spread of COVID-19. If we can slow the spread of the disease through social distancing, then we can reduce its impact on our community and our health care system. If we don’t slow COVID-19, we face the very real risk of our facilities filling up, our staff being overwhelmed and our supplies running out. That is the disturbing scenario playing out in some areas of Europe right now, and we want to do everything we can to avoid it here.
To be clear, you can still do things like going outside, enjoying nature, playing board games with your family and video chatting with friends. But we need you to avoid public gatherings and public places for the time being so we’re able to care for those in our community who are sickest and need us most.
As I’m sure you know by now, this public health situation is evolving not just daily, but hourly, and we need everyone’s help in managing it. Truly, we are all in this together.
Sincerely,
Joe
P.S. We made another video of things you should know about this rapidly evolving situation, this time with Dr. Doug Merrill, our chief medical officer for St. Charles Bend and Redmond. I hope you'll watch it.
Note: Replies to this message will go to a general St. Charles email address. That address is being monitored for frequently asked questions and, if appropriate, answers will be provided in a future communication.
