Ballad halts elective procedures for a month

Ballad Health, which serves a swath of the central Appalachian Mountains, said it will halt non-emergency elective procedures due to surging cases of COVID-19 and capacity concerns at its Virginia and Tennessee hospitals. (For more on measures hospitals are taking, see p. 12.)

Ballad officials announced the change, set to take effect Dec. 7 and last for at least 30 days, at a news conference where they again implored community members to follow basic public health guidelines such as mask wearing and social distancing.

“The way we’re seeing people act in the community, the way we’re seeing people attend large gatherings, we can expect to see the numbers continuing to rise higher and higher. So I’m pleading with you, please change your behavior if you haven’t yet,” said Eric Deaton, Ballad’s chief operating officer.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said at a separate news conference that health officials believe Tennessee’s lack of a mask mandate and other restrictions has helped increase the virus’ spread in neighboring southwest Virginia.

Ballad officials said pausing the surgeries was a difficult decision that will impact patients’ quality of life and the system’s finances. But they said it was necessary to free up staff to provide bedside care instead. They said there were no plans for furloughs.

The officials also said one of the most frustrating things for its nurses is knowing that some people continue to compare COVID-19 to the flu or the common cold and do not believe them when they talk about how serious and deadly the virus can be.