C.O medical centers set to resume non-urgent surgeries as Gov. Brown relaxes order
Bend Plastic Surgery is one of the facilities that had to cut back dramatically
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Starting a week from Friday, medical centers in Oregon will be able to resume more non-urgent surgeries.
Governor Kate Brown says medical centers will need to follow three steps when reopening.
- Minimize the risk of coronavirus transmission to patients and healthcare workers
- Maintain adequate hospital capacity in the event of a surge in COVID-19 cases
- Support the health care workforce in safely resuming activities
Brown compared the reopening to walking on ice.
“We are only stepping onto the ice carefully and cautiously, one step at a time," she said.
For St. Charles, it means being able to maintain an open bed capacity at or above 20% to handle a potential surge in COVID-19 patients. The hospital will only perform up to 50% of the surgeries they were doing before the pandemic.
Bend Plastic Surgery is one of the Central Oregon medical centers that will be able to reopen its doors May 1 for non-urgent procedures. The center performs cosmetic surgeries and reconstructive surgeries for burn victims and breast cancer patients. Because of the stay at home order, the center has not been able to perform its usual 10 surgeries a week, which has caused a backlog.
“It’s a tsunami of surgeries that’s how I would put that," Dr. Adam Angeles, the center's medical director, said Thursday. "There’s been a lot of people on the waiting list.”
In the last few weeks, Angeles has been able to perform about two or three emergency surgeries a week on burn victims .
The center's practicing manager says the office had already received a number of calls Thursday from patients ready to schedule appointments.
“Today, our phones have been going crazy since the announcement that we can start seeing people," Arika Gambino said. "They want to come in, and we want them to come in, too. We just want to keep everyone safe -- that’s our No. 1 goal.”
