Kaweah Delta announces changes due to increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations
Kaweah Delta announces changes due to increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations
Effective Dec. 7, hospital will limit surgeries, go to online rapid testing
registration, and more
VISALIA, CA – Next week in an effort to better protect the health
and safety of the community it serves amid a continued increase in local
COVID-19 hospitalizations, Kaweah Delta will limit elective surgeries,
modify visitor guidelines, and unveil an online scheduling system that
will make it more convenient for people to schedule rapid COVID testing.
“As you know, the situation with COVID remains very fluid and as
conditions change we have to make decisions to better protect our community,
our patients, and our healthcare team,” said Gary Herbst, Kaweah
Delta’s Chief Executive Officer. “Unfortunately, conditions
have worsened locally, so we do need to move forward with changes to reduce
the risk of somebody bringing the virus into our Medical Center inadvertently.”
Starting on Monday, in an effort to build hospital capacity, Kaweah Delta
will reduce surgical procedures and focus on medically necessary procedures.
On Tuesday, Kaweah Delta will also make changes to its visitor guidelines,
allowing just one unique visitor throughout a patient’s stay (excluding
those in the Emergency Department). This visitor must be the same visitor
each day. Additionally, visitor hours will be reduced to 11 a.m. to 1
p.m. and 5-7 p.m. Exceptions will still apply for end-of-life patients,
Labor & Delivery/NICU/Pediatric patients, dementia/developmentally
delayed patients, and other rapidly changing conditions. To be considered
for an exemption to these guidelines, individuals can contact the patient’s
charge nurse or manager of the patient care units.
“Nobody could appreciate the power of visitation than us. We understand
how it benefits the healing process and how it benefits communication
between patients and caregivers,” Herbst said. “The most painful
thing we ever did was to go to no visitors. We were really excited to
open back up, but with the number of cases and the risk it presents to
the patients and staff, we just have to really limit the number of people
that are in the hospital.”
Also starting on Monday, in an effort to better meet demand for rapid COVID-19
testing, Kaweah Delta will eliminate walk-in COVID testing and instead
allow people to schedule appointments online. Online registration will
open at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 5 for appointments on Monday and Tuesday.
The move is expected to eliminate wait times, improve the patient’s
experience, and allow staff at Kaweah Delta’s Urgent Care sites
to focus on those seeking care for conditions that are not related to
COVID, said Ryan Gates, Vice President of Population Health. In the past
month, calls to Kaweah Delta for rapid testing have tripled, going from
5,317 in October to 14,374 in November.
“We have been working to add staff and providers as quickly as we
can to help address this increase. We believe this move to online schedule
we definitely help in a number of ways,” Gates said. “We project
that we will have the capacity to offer 600 tests across all of our testing
sites.”
The online platform will allow online scheduling at
www.kaweahdelta.org, up to 48-hours in advance, at Kaweah Delta’s two Urgent Care Centers
and at its clinics in Lindsay, Dinuba, and Exeter (online registration
will be available forstarting Saturday, Dec. 5 at 5 p.m.). Sequoia Prompt
Care will also move to the platform next week; Visalia Medical Clinic’s
QuickCare will not have the online scheduling option available.
Following a telehealth visit at their scheduled appointment time, individuals
will come in for a walk-up COVID test. Results will be available same-day;
text messages will be sent to those who are negative and those who are
positive will receive phone calls. For those who cannot schedule appointments
online, Kaweah Delta’s COVID-19 Screening Hotline (559) 624-4110
will be used as a message line. To maintain reasonable wait times, Kaweah
Delta will offer a fixed number of online testing appointments. Reminder:
There is no cost to anyone receiving this service at Kaweah Delta’s
Urgent Care Centers or at its clinics in Lindsay, Dinuba and Exeter. Insurance
will be billed. However, VMC and Sequoia Prompt Care do not accept all
insurance plans, so individuals should contact each of those facilities
to ensure their insurance is accepted prior to receiving services. When
there are no available online appointments 48-hours out, Kaweah Delta
is asking that people get tested elsewhere in Tulare County by visiting
the list of testing locations at
https://covid19.tularecounty.ca.gov/covid-19-testing-sites/all-testing-locations/
On Friday, Kaweah Delta was caring for 79 patients in the hospital, eight
of which were in the Medical Center’s Intensive Care Unit. Thirty-three
of the 41 ICU beds were occupied by patients. In early October, Kaweah
Delta was down to as few as 14 COVID-positive patients in the hospital
on Oct. 24 from its high of 91 patients on July 25.
Earlier this week, Kaweah Delta published information detailing the underlying
conditions of its COVID-19 patients—hypertension, diabetes, obesity,
etc. Hypertension has been the leading underlying condition of our hospitalized
COVID patients throughout the pandemic, followed by diabetes, heart disease,
obesity, chronic kidney disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
“We share this information because while everyone is at risk of
contracting the virus and could require hospitalization, we want people
to be extremely careful if you have one of these conditions,” Herbst said.
Kaweah Delta shares COVID-19 information and regular updates, including
parking and construction news, with the community on its website at
www.kaweahdelta.org/COVID19 and on its social media accounts.
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