FORT HOOD, Texas –
Malish kicked it off with opening remarks saying that the hospital is open and pivoting back to normal operations while closely monitoring Texas’ phased opening and its lessons learned.
“This intelligence is very valuable and will keep us ahead of the game,” he said.
Malish said the hospital’s’ priorities are powering up procedures associated with Soldier readiness, including opening up more operating rooms.
“This helps Soldiers who are not physically capable of deploying to retain their physical ability to get back into the fight,” said Malish.
One of the changes to hospital operations is expanding COVID testing.
Beginning June 8, Malish said, testing will be decentralized and offered at the Community and Soldier–Centered Medical Homes.
The homes, Malish said, also will transition to same-day appointments and will expand virtual care services, focusing on quality care, disease prevention and health promotion.
“We are going to maintain a health-care system that manages clinical information exchanges at a place of convenience for the patient,” he said, stressing that video screening and virtual health will be a big part of health-care administration changes.
One notable hot topic was elective surgeries, which Triolo addressed.
“Since we were able to manage COVID community spread, we were able to assess the overall risk that allowed us to open up care to include some of our surgical care that is routine and elective,” she said, especially since the hospital is conducting prescreening and operative testing. “We will continue to prioritize our active duty to get after readiness.”
The group also discussed how the hospital transformed into a COVID-19 center with Nicholson emphasizing focused training and lessons learned from pandemic centers like California and Washington State.
“It was a very positive experience from something so negative,” she said.
Malish agreed, sharing his “sense of optimism.”
“What we thought might happen was very scary,” he said, “but it also gave us the adrenal surge that we needed,” adding that the pacing also gave the hospital valuable time to prepare the facility and train the staff in critical-care skills.
He also publicly thanked the community for their support, especially resources that belonged to Fort Hood and other units.
“Those teams came and helped us in many different ways,” he said. “The efforts of the community to support us was really fulfilling.”
Several audience members requested a clarification of CRDAMC’s visitation policy.
“Our visitation policy has not really changed from the beginning,” said Geslak. “It may evolve in the near future, but right now there are no visitors unless you are a minor, at the end of life or are a laboring patient.”
While CRDAMC’s visitation policy only allows one person for those categories, Geslak said laboring women also can have a doula as they are now considered a member of the medical support staff.
Other issues discussed were weekend cancer screening appointments for women beginning June 6 and pediatric appointments.
“Pediatric appointments have been resumed in person, but in limited numbers,” said Nicholson.
In closing, Malish stressed that opening up the hospital to full services will be deliberate and will “keeps us prepared and be able to transition our hospital to a COVID center should there be second and third waves of COVID.”
“We will also continue to do what we always have been able to do here, which is to provide excellent robust care,” he said.
The town hall ended with the big three: self-screening, social distance and washing hands.
“All these things we did to flatten the curb, keep on doing them,” said Nicholson. “COVID is still out there. The only reason we are opening is because the ICUs are empty.”
To listen to the Town Hall replay, click on the link https://www.facebook.com/CRDAMC/videos/251468662584482/
| Date Taken: |
05.29.2020 |
| Date Posted: |
06.10.2020 13:06 |
| Story ID: |
371037 |
| Location: |
FORT HOOD, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: |
33 |
| Downloads: |
0 |
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