Doctor: Seek care through ERS
♦ Health care experts worry the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting treatments for chronic conditions.
More than a month after the medical community and local governments in Georgia began to prepare for the worst from the spread of COVID-19, some health care experts are sending out the message that hospitals are still there to help.
Dr. Julie Barnes, chief medical officer at Redmond Regional Medical Center, said they are concerned that people who have chronic conditions or who need urgent medical attention are not going to emergency rooms for fear that they may contract the new coronavirus.
“We are hearing from our specialists and colleagues that people are staying at home and allowing their symptoms to escalate instead of getting things taken care of,” Barnes said. “We are aware of some tragic outcomes due to that.”
Precautions are still being taken at hospitals across the nation to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but Barnes said there has been some progress made in terms of slowing the transmission of the disease and keeping people safe.
“If a person is very sick or having what we call alarm symptoms that normally make them come to the ER, we want them to do just that,” Barnes said.
She said that projections have put the peak number of COVID-19 cases in Georgia occurring in the next two weeks, with the rate of new cases flattening out and making it very manageable for them to ensure the safety of anyone coming in for an urgent procedure.
“We are asking people to seek medical attention as they would have before COVID-19,” Barnes said. “Our job in the hospital is to do everything we can to protect our staff, but also any patients coming to the hospital.”
The start of the crisis last month saw hospitals restrict visitors and enact emergency measures to screen everyone that entered, including closing some entrances. Barnes said she understands that, along with the push for social distancing and the state of emergency orders adopted by local governments, it was a sobering and scary moment.
“All of that was quite appropriate based on the predictions we were seeing. We saw how the virus had spread in China and Italy. The concern was it was going to overwhelm the health care system in the United States as it had in those places,” Barnes said. “That was the reason for the dramatic closure of public places and trying to keep people from places where there was likely to be transmission of the disease.”
People planning to come to emergency rooms who have symptoms of COVID-19, such as fever, dry cough, or shortness of breath, should call ahead to let the hospital know or — if not able to come on their own — call 911 to have EMS transport them.
Those coming for other conditions will be screened for a fever and given a mask before entering the hospital. Barnes said they should be prepared as before with a list of medications and details about their symptoms, such as how long they have been going on and what they’ve tried to do to alleviate them.
Barnes said that Redmond has been at about 50% capacity over the last month or so and has not had any problems with obtaining personal protective equipment for their employees. All of that, she said, is the result of good planning and preparation.
“We have done a tremendous amount of planning for the worst. We brought in additional ventilators, created additional negative pressure rooms, all in preparation for a New York-type situation,” Barnes said. “But thanks to the good work of the city and county governments, and the response of Rome and Floyd County citizens adhering to the stay-at-home orders, we’ve definitely seen a flattening of that curve.”