Madison Furthers Care by Opening Elective Surgeries with Added Precautions!
Now that we have started doing elective surgeries, we have asked our non-clinical staff and visitors to wear cloth masks.
With around 700 employees and new visitors daily, our cloth mask supply (donated by many wonderful people in the community) has been rapidly depleting. Thank you so much to all the amazing people donating masks! Shout out to the Rexburg East Stake Relief Society from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for bringing in 185 masks today! Keep them coming! We appreciate your help!
Madison Memorial in Rexburg and Teton Valley Health in Driggs, unitedly have begun the process of ending the voluntary suspension of elective surgical procedures, a policy which has been in place since late March. The suspension, enacted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, was undertaken by both hospitals based on recommendations from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). In this same manner, the re-opening of our facilities to a phased-in approach is also following their recommendations.
According to a recent report from CMS, “[We] recognize at this time many areas have . . . stable incidence of COVID-19, and that it is important to be flexible and allow facilities to provide care for patients needing non-emergent, non-COVID-19 healthcare”. Both Eastern Idaho and Western Wyoming fit this model, as our numbers of COVID-19 incidence are stable. Therefore, a careful approach to resuming elective surgeries, accentuated by an abundance of caution, is now viewed as both timely and necessary.
“As neighboring hospitals, we are coming up with ways to protect you as patients and us as providers,” said Dr. Rachel Gonzales, CEO of Madison Memorial. “This will be a phased approach. We are stepping into this very thoughtfully, based on experts’ guidelines.”
“We continue to focus on the safety and health of our patients. By utilizing expert guidance, we can begin to meet more of our patient’s needs while keeping them safe,” said Keith Gnagey, CEO of Teton Valley Health. “Working in concert with our neighboring hospitals we will continually monitor and evaluate this process.”
There will be ongoing supervision and monitoring as these elective surgical procedures are resumed. If there’s found to be either (a) a surge in COVID-19 cases or (b) a significant limitation of personal protective equipment for staff, there will be an immediate return to a suspension of elective surgeries. Over time, additional elective procedures will be reintroduced, based on guidance from the CDC, the American College of Surgeons and other expert bodies.