Monadnock Community Hospital is resuming some non-emergency medical services for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic caused the Peterborough hospital to limit its offerings.
“Challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic reinforce our commitment to caring for every individual who seeks our care,” said MCH President and CEO Cyndee McGuire in a press release Wednesday. “At MCH, the safety of our patients, staff and community will remain our highest priority and reopening will be a gradual and phased process.”
Services reopening to non-urgent patients include primary care, behavioral health, orthopedics, surgery, operating room services, radiology, lab, physical therapy, and occupational health, according to the release.
“We will care for COVID-19 patients or suspected COVID-19 patients in designated areas of our hospital and have taken extra steps to assure we can safely provide you the healthcare services you need,” McGuire said. “Our facilities and the way we deliver care may look a little different, but our commitment to our mission to deliver high quality, compassionate health care remains the same.”
MCH continues to maintain readiness in the event of a surge in patients with COVID-19, and as such is not completely resuming normal operations at this time.
MCH has begun seeing patients with time-sensitive health-care needs and is scheduling appointments for patients who delayed or postponed care during the pandemic. Decisions about which procedures and office visits to undertake will be made by medical staff, taking into account each patient’s particular needs. MCH offices will be reaching out to patients to reschedule procedures and appointments.
“Our top priority, as we start to restore services, will be quality and safety,” said Dr. Michael Lindberg, Chief Medical Officer of MCH. “In addition to limiting the number of procedures and appointments to be rescheduled, we will continue with masking and distancing at all of our facilities as we care for patients. MCH will follow the new COVID-19 testing guidance and resources from the New Hampshire Department of Health. The guidelines are designed to expand surveillance of COVID-19 at hospitals and among patients about to undergo procedures. Pre-procedure testing is an added means for keeping patients, care team members and the community safe. At least initially, we will focus on lower risk operative procedures and on caring for those patients whose pending procedures and office visits were postponed in March, but for whom waiting longer at this time could negatively impact their health.”
For those patients whose office visits are not deemed time-sensitive and therefore have not been rescheduled, Lindberg said that tele-health visits remain a safe and effective means for receiving care. Since the start of the outbreak, MCH clinicians have had more than 4,000 tele-health appointments with their patients.
“While the access to care and flow through our systems may feel different, the quality and safety of care will remain outstanding,” the release states. “Patients who have participated in a tele-health visit report high levels of satisfaction citing the same high quality care they have come to expect, but now from the comfort of their own home.”
MCH has issued the following guidelines for those who will come into the hospital to assure that care will be delivered as safely as possible during this time:
■Social distancing measures and masking will continue at all MCH facilities.
■All patients entering the facility will be screened for symptoms of COVID-19.
■Non-COVID-19 care areas have been established wherever possible and will be separately staffed.
■All operative patients will be screened for COVID-19 symptoms and tested prior to surgery. This practice helps ensure optimal procedure outcomes and reduces the chances of transmission of COVID-19
■All staff members will be screened daily for symptoms of COVID-19 and kept from the workplace for testing and quarantine if they show signs of infection.
■All patients requiring admission to the hospital, whether they exhibit symptoms of COVID-19 or not, will be tested for the virus.
■Testing for COVID-19 will also be offered to more patients who exhibit symptoms of an infection, even some who do not have underlying health conditions or are not a health care or other essential worker.
■MCH has enhanced its environmental cleaning procedures in all areas of their facilities.
■Regular handwashing remains an ongoing practice.
“The precautions we’ve put into place during this phased return of services should provide our patients with the assurance that they can receive the care they need safely with minimal risk,” said Lindberg.
Patients can call their primary care office for more information.