Most services at Monadnock Community Hospital are operating at 60 to 80 percent of their pre-pandemic patient volumes, president and CEO Cynthia McGuire said during the Peterborough Select Board meeting on Tuesday. In some practices, half the patients are opting for telemedicine appointments while half are in person, she said, and the hospital is applying for grants to improve their technological capacity for more telemedicine in the long term. All service lines are currently accepting patients, she said. Patients testing positive for COVID-19 or suspected to be positive are being treated in a separate area of the hospital to avoid mixing, and the hospital has rerouted traffic protocol to facilitate “just-in-time” visits, so patients don’t have to sit in a waiting room with others.
“We have continued to see positive COVID-19 in our community… just in the last couple of weeks we’ve observed some uptick in positives here,” McGuire said. When the Ledger-Transcript asked for the specific numbers, VP of Community Relations and Philanthropy Laura Gingras said that the hospital is following guidelines and not reporting directly on the positive cases they’re seeing, and shares their numbers with the Department of Health, which aggregates the numbers daily. There were six current cases in Peterborough as of June 16, according to the DHHS website.
The Town House did not turn up any other positive COVID-19 tests after eight additional employees were tested after the Town Clerk confirmed a positive test last week, Deputy Town Administrator Nicole MacStay said. 16 people work in the Town House typically and more come in and out, but many have been working remotely and it was at each individual’s discretion to determine whether there was a chance they had been exposed, she said.
Monadnock Community Hospital is only running tests for patients displaying symptoms of COVID-19 and is not offering walk-in tests right now, McGuire said, although people can receive tests in Keene and Milford. The hospital expects to see another surge in the virus this fall, she said, but they are ready with all the equipment and protocol they’ve adopted.
“The community should reach out to their doctors if they have any concerns,” McGuire said, and encouraged the public to come to the hospital for treatment when they need it, and thanked the community for trusting and supporting MCH.
The hospital is launching an awareness campaign with the Grand Monadnock Rotary Club, Deputy Town Administrator Nicole MacStay and Fire Chief Ed Walker, Gingras said, and they plan to distribute ads, posters, and materials promoting guidelines for preventing COVID-19, including wearing masks and physically distancing. The Rotary Club is staging an event in Peterborough on July 10 and 11 to provide masks for residents of any town, Gingras said, with more details to come.
Restaurants in Peterborough are permitted to continue any approved outdoor seating through the end of October, Walker said.