Colquitt Regional recently announced its preparations to begin offering services that had been temporarily suspended in the wake of COVID-19. These plans come in response to the April 20 announcement by Gov. Brian Kemp that outlined the re-opening of some businesses including elective procedures at medical facilities.
“As many businesses begin to reopen throughout the state, the health and safety of our patients and staff continues to be our number one priority,” said Jim Matney, Colquitt Regional president and CEO. “We will continue to take extra safety precautions as we make our full service line available once again and will roll these preparations out in phases over the course of the next two months.”
The first phase of this rollout will occur over the next week, starting with diagnostic services including, laboratory, radiology, cardiology, endoscopy and same-day surgery services in the hospital. For vulnerable individuals, services may be allowed after thoughtful consideration and discussion with their physician.
“We are taking this very seriously and have instituted a number of measures to make sure it is safe for patients to be in our facility with minimized exposure,” said Matney.
These measures include:
- Staggered appointment times to limit the number of patients in a waiting room
- Continued temperature screenings at all entrances of the hospital
- Separate Emergency Departments and Intensive Care Units will be maintained, one for COVID-19 suspected patients and one for non-COVID-19 patients
- Two inpatient floors will be reserved for non-COVID-19 patients
- Separate entrance for outpatient surgery patients
- Surgery patients will be tested for COVID-19 four to five days prior to procedure date
- Self-isolation will be required for all surgery patients after COVID-19 testing
- Masks will be mandatory for staff, visitors, and patients upon entry to hospital
- Visitation will continue to be suspended for inpatients and emergency department patients
- OB and outpatient surgery patients are allowed one visitor
In addition to these measures, all areas of Colquitt Regional have undergone extensive cleaning and employees will continue to sanitize all areas daily.
“Patient safety has always been very important to us,” said Hospital Authority Chairman Maureen A. Yearta, Ed.D. “We have consistently received an ‘A’ rating for our Hospital Safety Score and our commitment to that level of cleanliness and infection control has been a great asset to our staff as they have managed the COVID-19 pandemic.”
For any patient concerned with making an in-person visit to their doctor’s office, Sterling Virtual Care services will continue to be offered via smartphone, tablet or camera-enabled computer. Colquitt Regional Home Care Services will also be available to assist with virtual visits in the home for people who are medically fragile, have limited technological resources, and older adults or people of any age who have any serious underlying medical conditions.
“We are excited to be able to make needed services available again for our patients but we are not out of the woods yet,” said Matney. “We encourage everyone to remain vigilant about social distancing, hand washing and isolating themselves if they are high-risk or feeling any symptoms of COVID-19.”
COVID-19 testing will continue to be available at Colquitt Regional. Patients experiencing symptoms are encouraged to contact their physician or call the Colquitt Regional COVID-19 Hotline at 229-891-9380.
“We recognize that this is still an evolving pandemic and our plans may need to be adjusted, but for now we are looking forward to seeing our patients again while still maintaining an elevated level of caution,” said Matney.
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