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WHS, Mon Valley Hospital CEOs brief community on preparedness

5 min read
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Brook Ward

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Louis Panza

The leaders of Washington Health System and Monongahela Valley Hospital encouraged residents in Southwestern Pennsylvania to continue social distancing, washing hands, and wearing face masks in public to help limit the spread of COVID-19.

Brook Ward and Louis J. Panza Jr., chief executive officers of Washington Health System and Mon Valley Hospital, respectively, appeared Thursday on Morning Briefing, a webinar hosted by the Washington County Chamber of Commerce, to discuss the hospitals’ preparations for a possible surge of COVID-19 cases and to thank the community for its support of the health-care employees on the front lines of the county’s response to the pandemic.

Ward said it’s hard to predict when the surge will happen, noting models project an increase in cases in the area ranging anywhere from this weekend until the end of April or early May.

“We’re monitoring projections and a number of different models about when that rate of infection will go up and when we might see that surge hitting our organizations and community,” said Ward. “It’s a little bit like watching the National Weather Service with hurricane predictions.”

Ward and Panza noted that Gov. Tom Wolf yesterday issued an executive order requiring all Pennsylvania hospitals to conduct an inventory of personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators, medications, and other supplies, and submit it to the state within five days. If necessary, the state plans to distribute supplies from hospitals across the state to hospitals where the greatest need is.

“We’re going to be looking at that and trying to determine what the impact of that is, and I hope they’re not going to rip product out of our building that we need to protect our employees and our communities,” said Ward.

WHS and Mon Valley Hospital have ramped up procurement of medical equipment and supplies in anticipation of a COVID-19 surge.

Washington Hospital has increased its number of ventilators from 14 to 49, and can increase the number of beds in its Intensive Care Unit from 27 to 51, if necessary. If there is an additional need for beds, the hospital plans to set up an ICU in the pre-op and post-op areas and can expand the emergency department to accommodate an influx of patients.

Additionally, the hospital increased its number of negative pressure rooms, used for infectious diseases, from 14 to more than 40.

Mon Valley Hospital has taken similar steps, increasing the number of ventilators available from 8 to 22, and converting seven critical care rooms to negative pressure rooms, giving the hospital a total of eight negative pressure rooms.

Hospitals throughout Pennsylvania have stopped performing elective surgeries, which Panza said has helped conserve personal protective gear that hospital workers will use to treat patients with the highly contagious respiratory virus.

Both noted the shortage of protective gear hospitals are facing, as states across the country compete with each other and other countries to purchase N95 masks, gowns, gloves, and other supplies, and the increased prices of PPE.

“Sixty-cent masks we used to buy three weeks ago are now $4 masks this week, so the cost of us buying it, when we can find it out on the market, has gone up,” said Panza.

Ward and Panza thanked the community for its donations of PPE, money and other items to help make sure doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists and all other employees have protective gear and other supplies.

“The community has been absolutely wonderful in recognizing the risks our employees take each and every day when you’re dealing with a pandemic like this and working with these types of patients,” said Panza.

Both hospitals have eliminated visitation hours, so hospital staff is communicating daily with family members of patients to keep them updated on their conditions.

Washington Hospital staff members threw a virtual birthday party for an 86-year-old woman who was a patient. Families have been staying in contact with their loved ones using technology, including FaceTime and Zoom meetings, Panza said.

When Chamber of Commerce President Jeff Kotula asked what the community can do to help, Ward encouraged people to continue social distancing, wear face masks, and wash their hands.

“Promoting that concept is important,” Ward said. “That will help keep our team safe, that will help flatten the curve and prevent us from being overrun with people who are sick.”

As for masks, Ward said, “I’d highly encourage everybody in the community when they leave their home to put a mask on, and it’s not only so they’re protected, but it’s so they’re protecting others they’re around.”

To date, Washington County has 63 reported cases of COVID-19, with no deaths reported.

“I think (residents) are doing a good job of social distancing, hygiene, and wearing masks,” said Ward, who also said Washington County was among the earlier counties to conduct COVID-19 testing at various sites, beginning on March 12.

But, noted Panza, even though testing is available, “we can take the samples, but being able to get the labs to process enough and having enough reagents to run the test is still an issue, but that’s nationwide.”

Both CEOs said the pandemic has been a financial drain on the hospitals, which rely on elective surgeries and have experienced a drop in the number of patients in the hospitals. Washington Hospital recently laid off employees.

Ward said the hospital is ramping up to be prepared for COVID-19 cases “while at the same time dealing with the financial distress of seeing over half our revenue essentially cut off.”

Ward said misinformation about COVID-19 has been circulating, so the hospital is working to keep residents informed about the virus and the hospital’s plan for battling it, while encouraging them to remain calm and fight panic and fear.

Ward and Panza encouraged residents to stay home for Easter.

Panza plans to FaceTime and call family members on Easter, “but Easter dinner is off this year,” he said.

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