As the coronavirus pandemic progresses throughout the United States, Emergency Hospital Systems is preparing as thoroughly as possible to efficiently and adequately manage a potential wave of coronavirus patients that could happen if there is a large spike of severe cases in our community.
Public health officials have taken the necessary containment measures to lessen a potential outbreak, offering a series of public health recommendations that include: social distancing, avoiding large crowds and gatherings, and the practice of good hand hygiene. We are confident that the Community will follow these guidelines and that the spread of COVID-19 disease will decrease, so that not as many people will get sick at the same time.
On our end, we have made preparations to handle an unexpected surge in patients, besides caring for patients with other acute and life-threatening conditions.
We have activated our Emergency Management Plan which comprises a series of processes aimed at reinforcing precautionary and preventive measures for our patients, employees, vendors and community in general.
So, we can say that we are prepared enough to provide adequate and optimal care in case an outbreak of Coronavirus happens in our community, weather the patient requires hospitalization or if the patient is one of the majorities of cases that must be isolated at home and treated on an outpatient basis.
Some of the measures and procedures that we have adopted to protect our patients include the modification of our visiting policy in all our hospitals and emergency rooms until further notice.
Our new visitation policy states:
- Visitation hours are now from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and will be limited to one adult (18 years or older) visitor per patient, per day.
- No overnight visitors will be allowed.
- Children will not be allowed on an impatient care of the Hospital or Emergency Room Department.
- For patients in isolation, there will be no visitors.
We are aware that the restriction on the hospital visits could cause certain discomfort to our patients and their loved ones, but we believe that these types of actions will help keep our patients, staff and community safe. Thank you in advance for your cooperation!
Additionally, we are regularly providing updates on coronavirus-related topics to all of our employees so that they become more knowledgeable about how the infection spreads and what preventive measures they should take to avoid exposure to the virus.
Policy with Employees:
We also have established a new set of policies aimed at putting in place additional precautionary measures to
further protect our patients, community and staff members, and prevent the potential spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Policy is applicable to all EHS Employees, Contractors and Visitors:
- Staff members that have traveled to any of the affected countries won’t be able to return to work until all of the following criteria are met:
- They have returned to the country for more than 14 days.
- They have not shown signs of illness during those 14 days
- They have check in with employee health.
- Everyone who enters the facility must submit to the temperature check.
- Any person with a temperature of 100.4F˚ or higher will not be allowed beyond this check point.
- Facilities only will have one point of entry:
Check Points:- TEH – ER Lobby
- CEH – Front Entrance: 9am -6pm and then ER Entrance 6pm-9am
- Deerbrook HOPD – Outside Entrance
- Woodlands HOPD – Outside Entrance