St. Charles erects triage tents, prepares for surge in COVID-19 patients

Pharmacy drive-up offered, revised testing criteria, more

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – In response to the COVID-19 virus, St. Charles Health System said Monday it "is proactively taking a number of steps this week to protect its caregivers and patients, to preserve medical supplies and to prepare for a surge of patients."

Protecting caregivers and patients

• The Community Pharmacy at St. Charles Bend is now offering drive-up service. Starting today, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Emergency Department patients, community members and caregivers will be able to pick up their prescriptions at an RV trailer located behind the triage tent outside of the Emergency Department. (Prescriptions for discharging patients will continue to be picked up at the Community Pharmacy inside the hospital.)
• St. Charles Outpatient Rehabilitation has closed its services and canceled appointment for two weeks. The goal is to reduce the number of people visiting facilities in order to reduce the potential spread of COVID-19. Patients will be notified of the cancelations by the Rehab team.
• Visitor restrictions in effect. Simply put, visitors are not allowed at the four hospitals save for a few exceptions. Read more about visitor restrictions here.
• Caregivers are entering St. Charles Bend through access control points. The health system is requiring all caregivers and providers to enter the Bend hospital through the Family Birthing Center/Medical Diagnostic Unit entrance on the south part of the campus where they are being screened for fever and cough.
• All four hospitals are starting to use external triage tents. The Bend hospital is now triaging patients outside the Emergency Departments, and other campuses will begin shortly.

Preserving supplies

In response to a growing nationwide shortage of medical supplies, including personal protective gear like masks, as well as nasopharyngeal swabs, which are used to collect samples to test for COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses, the health system has changed its criteria for testing.

In order to be tested, a patient must have a fever above 100.4 within the past 24 hours, a cough, shortness of breath AND one of the following:

• Age greater than 60 years, or
• Immunosuppressed or
• A chronic disease of one of the following:
  • Cardiovascular system, or
  • Pulmonary system, or
  • Diabetes Mellitus

Preparing for a surge of patients

In anticipation of an influx of patients, the health system is making some significant changes to how and where patients are cared for in our communities. To best manage patient flow across the system, the following will occur starting this week:

• High-acuity patients, as well as all pediatric patients, will be cared for at the Bend hospital.
• Lower-acuity patients will be cared for at the Madras, Prineville and Redmond hospitals. This will include hospice patients, as well as patients who need long-term care but cannot be transferred to a skilled nursing facility.

All four hospitals have begun to evaluate their patient counts and identify which patients may need to be transferred to another St. Charles facility. These changes are being made proactively, to ensure there are adequate beds in the event of a patient surge, officials said.

--

News release from Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems:

Oregon Hospitals Move to Preserve Bed Capacity, Staff Resources and Supplies
Hospitals respond to Governor’s press conference

Portland, OR – Today, Becky Hultberg, President and CEO of the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems (OAHHS), released the following statement regarding hospital efforts to preserve capacity and limit community spread of COVID-19. OAHHS represents Oregon’s 62 acute care hospitals and works on behalf of the patients they serve to promote community health and to continue to improve Oregon's innovative health care system.

“Hospitals and health systems in other countries have been overwhelmed by the massive influx of COVID-19 patients. Oregon’s hospitals have been planning and implementing crisis measures to preserve hospital capacity, staff resources and supplies in preparation for an expected surge in patients.

“Oregon Crisis Care Guidance recommends measures hospitals can take, including deferring non-essential surgeries. The highest level of guidance recommends hospitals defer surgeries not essential to preserve life and limb or not needed to facilitate discharge from the hospital. Each hospital and health system will make changes based on its unique circumstances. Some hospitals have already begun canceling elective surgeries, with others expected to begin this week.

“We strongly support the new social distancing measures Governor Brown announced today. While hospitals are doing all they can to prepare, there is only so much physical capacity these facilities can create. Supplies and workforce are also limited. The only way to ensure that hospitals can respond effectively to a surge in patients is to flatten the pandemic curve by enacting more stringent social distancing measures immediately. We understand the dramatic social and economic consequences of these decisions, but the time to act is now and we applaud the Governor for making these hard choices. We also recognize that stronger measures may be required.

“Our members will continue working with the state and its emergency response team to safeguard the health of Oregonians as this crisis unfolds.”