Columbus Regional Health officials say some local residents have been hesitant to reschedule appointments that were postponed due to the pandemic, or even in some cases, call 911 or go to the emergency room, out of fear of being exposed to COVID-19.
Earlier this week, CRH began phasing in certain postponed elective procedures after Gov. Eric Holcomb issued an executive order allowing hospitals to resume them.
Services being re-established at CRH with this phased approach include certain surgical services, screening and diagnostic procedures and other outpatient therapies and treatments that are deemed “critical” for patients’ health, meaning that their health could be adversely affected if the procedure is not done, CRH officials said.
CRH officials plan to monitor patient load at the hospital and how the COVID-19 pandemic evolves over the next couple of weeks before attempting to scale up other non-emergency procedures that had been canceled or postponed.
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“It’s not surprising,” said CRH spokeswoman Kelsey DeClue. “We understand that for everybody, not just those receiving health care services, there’s definitely a lot of hesitation and fear out there. We understand that, certainly.”
“It’s certainly a common feeling,” she added.
CRH officials said the hospital system has taken several steps to reduce the risk of exposing patients to the coronavirus, including spacing out scheduled appointments and procedures, increased cleaning measures to disinfect surfaces and screening anyone who enters any CRH facility for a fever and having them answer questions about their exposure risk.
Additionally, CRH has removed chairs from waiting rooms to enforce social distancing guidelines, limited visitors for hospital patients and all CRH staff, patients and anyone accompanying a patient are required to wear a mask before coming into a CRH facility. Those without masks will be provided masks before they can enter, DeClue said.
Throughout the crisis, CRH officials have encouraged people to seek medical care in case of an emergency, call their physician’s office for questions regarding postponed procedures or contact the CRH Triage Resource Call Center at 812-379-4449 for questions and concerns about exposure or symptoms associated with COVID-19.
"We’re certainly not out of the woods (as a community), but we’ve certainly slowed the spread," DeClue said. "As part of that, I think there were people questioning either not wanting to leave their home and risk exposure out in the community or receiving medical care. …It’s an unfortunate byproduct of this unique situation with everyone kind of needing to shelter and hunker down in their homes."
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Columbus Regional Hospital has created a Triage Resource Call Center, a phone resource line accepting calls from residents with questions and concerns about exposure or symptoms associated with COVID-19.
The phone resource line can be contacted at 812-379-4449 and is staffed by registered nurses who will offer screening questions and potentially recommend a course of action for patients.
Visit crh.org/news/2020/03/16/coronavirus-update-what-you-need-to-know for more information.
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