“Don’t wait or let the fear of potentially being exposed to COVID-19 keep you away. Of those 18 positive cases, most were linked to community spread, she said, which means the employees did not contract the illness at work. The hospital system is continuing to follow stringent cleaning and personal protective equipment guidelines, Attlesey-Pries said, and less than 1% of the hospital system’s employees tested positive for coronavirus since the pandemic started. By reopening Community Medical Center, system leaders hope more will seek health care at a location that’s close to them and more familiar. “We’re seeing them come in very late and it’s very hard or harder to treat them, or we’re seeing deaths at home like from heart attack or stroke, or even cancer diagnoses are happening later because people aren’t coming in for acute symptoms like they would normally.”īCH is still seeing a 35% decrease in emergency visits, Attlesey-Pries said. “That doesn’t mean everyone is suddenly well and they don’t need to come into the ED,” she said. “It is a great resource for the community because it is a little bit slower, it is a little bit less intense and I think everybody can be a little bit less business-like and more interactive with the patient and their family and keep it as a community health center,” Moeller said.īCH leaders decided to reopen Community Medical Center emergency department because of the decline of COVID-19 positive patients and in the number of people coming in for testing, said Jackie Attlesey-Pries, vice president of operations and chief nursing officer for the hospital system.Īnother factor in the decision was the sharp decline in people seeking care in the emergency department, including for heart attacks and strokes, Attlesey-Pries said. Because the nine-bed emergency department sees an average of 15 patients a day, and there’s more of a chance for staff to connect with them.
Moeller said he used to thrive on the intensity of busy emergency departments, but as his career progressed, he’s drawn to the slower pace in Lafayette.
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