Sheldon, Iowa — It’s been a trying few weeks for all of us, but none more than health care professionals.
We talked with Rick Nordahl, who’s the CEO of Sanford Sheldon Medical Center. He gives us a status update of what’s been going on since an initial COVID-19 press conference two weeks ago.
(as said:)”What’s happened since is we close the hospital and clinic to visitors. So we’re asking only the patients come for an outpatient visit unless they have a minor child or a vulnerable adult or an adult that needs some help, so that we keep people out of the hospital and the clinic for a couple of reasons. Number one. We certainly are encouraging that everybody practice good social distancing because we know that if you do not have contact for 2 minutes or less and you are six feet away from a person, it’s very unlikely you can contract the disease. So six feet, two minutes is really what we’re looking at for contact or exposure to the disease.”
He says they’re doing that for two reasons — one that patients don’t get exposed to the virus, and two — they are trying to encourage people to stay home and only go out when they need to go out.
(as said:)”I know that people get stir-crazy at home and they want to do some things but take the nice days and rake your lawn — even if you got to rake it four or five times. The more times you’re out and about — number one — if you do have the disease and don’t know it because many people have it and can shed the disease prior to having symptoms and some don’t even get symptoms — that that allows you to spread it — the more times you’re in a facility, no matter what facility that is. And then secondarily it lowers your risk of catching the disease. So it’s really important that we are thoughtful and even more methodically thoughtful of what we do day in and day out because this is a different time today than it was two weeks ago. “
But Nordahl doesn’t want you to worry too much. And he especially says not to worry about Sanford’s preparations.
(as said:)”We’re safe. We’re prepared — between the hospital, the clinic, the nursing home — we’re engaging in personal protective equipment when it’s necessary. We have adequate supply right now. We’re working with Jared at EMA to make sure that we’re supporting what the state needs us to do…county public health… It’s a whirlwind because things happen on a very frequent basis and things change on a frequent basis. Even if you look at the CDC website from two weeks ago to today there are many processes that have changed because the science continues to evolve. So, it’s very fluid and evolving on a regular basis. “
Nordahl says at this time, they are advising people to call before they show up at the clinic.
(as said:)”We’ll get you to a doctor. They can talk to you and really assess whether you need to be seen that day or not. And secondly, we have some more video visits available in the schedule. So if you have MyChart from Sanford, it’s really easy to do a video visit so we can assess whether you need to be seen in the clinic, the ED, or you can you can stay at home and manage symptoms. A different way of doing business today than it was when it was two weeks ago — and I think we’ll continue to see that evolve.”
Nordahl says while he wants to encourage people to support local businesses, he says it’s probably best to do it remotely as possible such as over the phone or internet, using carryout, delivery, and curbside pickup at this time — whatever is going to limit contact the most.
