YRMC closes COVID-19 unit
Hospital has treated and discharged more than 1,000 infected patients
The Yuma Regional Medical Center closed its COVID-19 unit with a celebration on Friday.
“A joyous cheer that our healthcare heroes have been waiting months to give finally rang out Friday as we closed our last unit solely dedicated to COVID-19,” the hospital announced on social media.
“A few of the many employees who served in our
COVID units throughout the pandemic celebrated by leaving the remaining unit one last time – and closing the door behind them. While the COVID-19 pandemic is not over, we are grateful for a wonderful milestone in this historic journey side by side with our beloved community,” YRMC added.
The unit first went live on April 1, before the infection rate escalated in Yuma County, which occurred in the months of June and July. “They wanted to go live early because they don’t want to wait until you really have to have it,” Machele Headington, vice president of marketing and communications, said at the time.
The sealed unit was completely closed off from everything else in the hospital and staffed by
workers who volunteered to serve in the unit. The isolation unit had a negative pressure anteroom, a special room that allowed workers to put on full protective equipment before going into the unit.
When workers left the unit, they removed their protective gear in a “dirty room” and then they entered the anteroom again. “So you leave the dirties and keep the bugs in the dirty location. The whole point is to keep the bugs where the bugs need to stay,” said Deborah Aders, chief nursing officer and vice president of patient care services. “You then come out into the anteroom, which is all negative pressure, which means you won’t be able to carry out anything with you.”
Workers were able to take showers and change before going home.
Aders noted that many departments had a hand in making the unit come together, including Environmental Services, Food And Nutrition, Pharmacy, Supplies, Facilities, etc.
Headington commended the YRMC team for pulling together like an “ant farm” to make the unit possible. “So many people in this organization went above and beyond to make sure the unit was ready … to start providing care to those patients.”
YRMC activated its pandemic response team in early March. The tiered plan took a scaled approach, with each tier including an increasing number of staff.
In June, the hospital initiated Tier 3 of its
pandemic plan and rescheduled all elective and non-emergency surgeries to focus on the needs of hospitalized patients and patients in the Emergency Department.
YRMC had more than 150 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 at one time, with a peak of at least three dozen patients in ICU beds and more than two dozen on ventilators.
Toward the end of July, the number of COVID-19 patients began to trend downward. On Friday, the hospital reported 18 COVID-19 patients, with nine in ICU and eight on ventilators.
Throughout the pandemic, YRMC has so far treated and discharged a total of 1,002 patients with COVID-19. It transferred 156 patients to other facilities, and 220 patients died at the hospital.