Chief Nursing Office discusses COVID -19 and the hospital’s response

CNO Marie Mitchell has only been on the job for a few months but she came at a time when things were changing in the way everyone does business. That includes the Cedar County Memorial Hospital.

“Ever since I have been here, we have cared for any patient (suspected COVID-19 and COVID-19 positive included), that we were able to care for safely and appropriately as indicated by CDC guidelines and standards of care. We initially only had one reverse isolation room. We have made many changes in our facility’s physical layout, staffing and PPE requirements, in order to safely and prudently accommodate as many patients as possible, no matter the patients’ diagnosis. We have purchased alternate portable isolation equipment for COVID-19 patients, to keep our staff and other patients and visitors safe.”

“We do have two negative pressure rooms, one that is capable of housing two patients if the patients’ conditions and requirements allow. Those two rooms will remain for the sickest patients. CDC’s current guidelines simply require that COVID-19 patient rooms have doors, and staff caring for these patients wear enhanced PPE. However, we are in the process of completing an additional reverse isolation room and placing doors on two other rooms in the ER.”

“Negative pressure rooms are isolation rooms that keep patients with infectious diseases, or patients who are susceptible to infections from others, away from other patients, visitors and staff. Negative pressure rooms work by way of a special venting system that blows filtered non-contaminated air into the room and expels contaminated air out through the special venting system on the roof of these rooms. The pressure inside these rooms is less than the pressure outside the rooms and since air moves from highest to lowest resistance, contaminated air does not leak out of the room into atmosphere within the hospital.”

“The sickest COVID-19 patients will get these rooms; those patients requiring aerosol generating treatments and closer observation. As mentioned earlier, the CDC’s current guidelines simply require that COVID-19 patient rooms have doors, and staff caring for these patients wear enhanced PPE.”

“Negative pressure rooms are also used to isolate patients with contagious, airborne diseases such as measles, tuberculosis, and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), in addition to COVID-19.”

“We’ve had nine positive COVID-19 patients. If we get filled, we will need to transfer as needed and, who knows, down the road we may have to designate other areas of our facility, additional building, etc. to care for these patients. This pandemic is calling the healthcare system to make decisions according to the direction of the pandemic and the community in which we serve. We have divided our facility and designated 11 beds for our sickest COVID-19 patients that we can safely care for and that cannot care for themselves at home.”

“Non-COVID-19 patients are cohorted on one side of the hospital floor while our COVID-19 patient are cohorted on the opposite side, with the floor divided with a physical barrier. Additionally, we try to maintain specific staff to care for the patients diagnosed with COVID-19, and specific staff to care for patients not diagnosed with COVID0-19.”

“There is really no special training for COVID-19. For healthcare provider in the workplace, maintaining proper precautions (i.e. frequent hand washing, proper PPE, social distancing when possible, and consistently wearing appropriate facial coverings at all times) is essential. For the general public, I cannot emphasize enough, frequent handwashing for at least 15 seconds, using hand sanitizer when unable to wash your hands, avoiding large crowds whenever possible, and the importance of social distancing, and wearing appropriate facial coverings whenever in public.”