UMC issued the following statement.
A crush of patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel
coronavirus, will soon impact hospitals in Mississippi as the pandemic
spreads from community to community.
In
response, the University of Mississippi Medical Center is “bringing to
bear the full force of resources we have to address this,” said Dr.
LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for health affairs and the Medical Center’s top executive.
Woodward
and other Medical Center leaders updated statewide media with what’s
known about the highly contagious virus, which had killed 110 people and
sickened close to 8,000 in the United States as of mid-Wednesday. Some
media attended in person, with others listening in via conference call.
Globally,
more than 200,000 have been infected, with the death toll numbering
8,732, also as of mid-Wednesday. The Mississippi State Department of
Health listed on its website
a total 34 people in the state confirmed positive for COVID-19,
spanning a total 14 counties, and MSDH testing of 513 residents. Those
numbers are escalating daily.
No
hospital nationally or globally can be fully prepared for a pandemic
infection, said Dr. Alan Jones, chair of the Department of Emergency
Medicine. Given that, “we are ramping up to prepare for the tidal wave
of patients we know will hit us,” he said. “Our teams are working all
day, every day, focusing on when this reality comes face to face with
us, so that we can be as ready as we can be.”
Among the Medical Center’s actions:
- Visitation policies have been sharply restricted to decrease the number of people who have contact with health-care workers, patients and a limited number of family members.
- Clinic visits and many elective surgeries have been postponed across the board.
- Aggressive steps have been taken to conserve personal protective equipment, or PPE, that includes face masks, gloves, gowns and face and eye shields. All clinical activities for students have been suspended; groups of caregivers who round from patient to patient have been cut to only a necessary handful entering a patient room; and managers are taking steps to ensure patients, families and employees don’t take home PPE.
The
Medical Center is receiving partial shipments of PPE and can’t count on
help from any federal or state agencies for reinforcements. “We don’t
see that as the cavalry coming to help us,” Woodward said. “The demand
outstrips the supply.”
- The Medical Center has the capability to increase to more than 100 its number of negative pressure patient rooms, which stands at 60. Negative pressure rooms, often used for patients with infectious diseases, are designed to filter contaminated air out of the hospital’s air-handling system.
- A telehealth app is in development that can be downloaded on a smartphone, giving Mississippians the opportunity to be screened for COVID-19 without having to make an in-person visit. “You will go to a virtual waiting room and be picked up by a provider, but only for COVID-19 screening,” Jones said. The app should be available in the next few days. (KF: Funny. To think how UMC and is MBML allies fought this.)
- UMMC researchers are working around the clock to develop an in-house test for the virus, with the technology expected to be available in several weeks. As the state’s only academic medical center, “not only do we have physicians, but we have the scientists necessary to create this test,” said Dr. Richard Summers, associate vice chancellor for research.
Those
who believe they need to be tested for COVID-19 should not come to an
emergency room, Jones said. He urges them instead to use telehealth to
obtain screening or contact their provider, and let an emergency room be
the resource for truly sick and injured people.
“We
need people to allow us to do our job and take care of the sick, sick
patients at the (UMMC) Emergency Department,” Jones said. “If you are
not in need of hospitalization, stay away from the ED. Most patients
just need reassurance and the ability to isolate themselves.”
Those
with mild cases should stay home until 72 hours after all symptoms have
resolved, he said. “Seek care only if you get worse, or if you become
short of breath,” Jones said, and if that’s the case, “please, on the
front end, notify the provider first” so that steps can be taken to
protect health care workers and other patients.
Medical
Center caregivers are urging the public to practice social distancing,
or staying no closer than six feet to any person; perform frequent hand
washing; stay home from work if sick; and taking many other measures
intended to help curb the virus’ spread.
“These
things are not aimed at preventing people from getting the virus,”
Jones said. “It’s to give health care a fighting chance. If not, our
ability to care for any patient will be hampered.”
Complicating
that is the state’s high rates of chronic diseases that place many at
greater risk for complications if they contract the virus, said Dr.
Jonathan Wilson, UMMC’s chief administrative officer. “That’s the group
of patients we are worried about the most,” he said.
Screening
for the virus has pivoted from checking for travel to a highly affected
country, to considering anyone for testing who has the primary symptoms
of cough, fever and respiratory issues, Jones said. “This is a reality.
It is here, and it will affect all of us.”
Jones
urges Mississippians to stay abreast of a rapidly changing situation
and take steps to protect themselves and others. That includes
physicians, nurses and others in the health care community that give
bedside care to all patients, not just those who will become ill from
COVID-19.
“This
is not to be taken lightly,” he said. “This will affect us profoundly.
This is not another bad flu season. School children will be reading
about this 50 years from now.”
Read more about COVID-19 and UMMC preparedness here.
8 comments:
May God Bless the women and men serving in our hospitals right now. And thank you.
Decided to watch Outbreak as millions of others have done in recent days. I'm really grateful that Covid-19 isn't super Ebola.
There are some still calling this a hoax. How many times do they have to be lied to by their leaders/media icons before they figure it out?
Nobody has said the virus is a hoax. They said the reaction and talk of doom and gloom by the media and the democrats is a hoax to hype things up and attempt to paint Trump as unable to handle the situation...to terrify their fellow citizens into overreaction. Quit lying 10:15pm.
The comparison is then often made to the media non-reaction to the swine flew during Obama's first term when about a billion people had it worldwide and over 12K Americans died....and Obama did very little for 6 months...to deafening silence from the media.
10:43 have you seen the interviews with spring breakers in FL. No, they didn’t use the word ‘hoax’ but they certainly don’t seem to care. Yes, I has reckless abandonment in my youth but this is a little different that flying around Jackson on 220 with its dips and such.
The President did call it a hoax. The President did know about the virus in January...
None of all that really matters now does it? It’s here and it’s making people sick.
I applaud the doctors and nurses at UMMC (and their families). Along with first responders, truck drivers, hospitality industry workers, folk delivering food, businesses that are doing all they can to help in this trying time.
More deaths in the US from the flu so far in 2020 (according to the CDC) than world-wide deaths from COVID-19. Taking precautions is good but lets not go crazy.
Pandemic in 1968 may have been worse than this. Don't even remember it, but I was only 11 at the time. Hope this one doesn't get as bad.
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1968-pandemic.html
extracted from the above CDC Website: "The 1968 pandemic was caused by an influenza A (H3N2) virus comprised of two genes from an avian influenza A virus, including a new H3 hemagglutinin, but also contained the N2 neuraminidase from the 1957 H2N2 virus. It was first noted in the United States in September 1968. The estimated number of deaths was 1 million worldwide and about 100,000 in the United States. Most excess deaths were in people 65 years and older."
3/18 @ 10:43 p.m., so pigs did fly? "Swine flew"?
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