Oregon Health Authority lifts ‘outbreak’ status at St. Charles Redmond
Hospital to again allow one visitor per patient, per day
REDMOND, Ore. (KTVZ) — The Oregon Health Authority has notified St. Charles Redmond that all COVID-19 tests over the past two weeks related to the hospital's recent outbreak resulted negative, prompting the agency to lift its COVID-19 “outbreak” status.
The health system said its investigation of the outbreak, which was traced to 28 people, including 25 caregivers, revealed the source was a COVID-positive patient.
Though the outbreak has resolved, many of the changes instituted at the Redmond hospital remain in effect, including:
- Increasing air exchanges to at least six times per hour, and even more frequently in patient rooms
- Increasing air filtration to more than the CDC recommendation (+90% filtration at .3 microns)
- Instructing caregivers who are within an arm’s length of a patient with respiratory symptoms for more than 15 minutes to use N95 respirators and eye protection throughout their shift while the outbreak is ongoing
- Adding hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies to more locations throughout the facility
- Asking caregivers to eat in the cafeteria or on the outside patio, rather than in break rooms, to create a larger space between caregivers when their masks are down
- Reducing maximum capacity in all break rooms and conference rooms, to ensure physical distancing can be maintained
Starting Wednesday, visitation restrictions will be lifted to allow one visitor per patient, per day.
“I have been impressed by the commitment and resilience of the Redmond community, caregivers, patients and their families to come together and comply with enhanced restrictions so we could resolve the outbreak as quickly as possible,” said St. Charles Redmond Chief Nursing Officer James Reedy. “We have learned lessons that we will continue to practice.”
