ADDRESSING MEASURES
Capital Region physicians discuss COVID-19 response at Albany Med
ALBANY, N.Y. » Leading physicians from Capital Region hospitals convened at Albany Medical Center Friday afternoon. The physicians outlined the coordinated response to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Among the steps being addressed were visitation guidelines, entrance restrictions, staff protection, and communications efforts. Isolation testing areas, including tents and drive-up options, have been implemented at Albany Med, Columbia Memorial Health, Ellis Medicine, Saratoga Hospital, and St. Peter’s Health Partners.
Dr. Ferdinand J. Venditti, executive vice president for System Care Delivery and hospital general director at Albany Med, advised those who believe they are symptomatic before they go anywhere, to call ahead.
“The message that I would like to convey to the public is if you think you need to be tested, call, not go to, call your primary care provider. Talk to them, tell them what’s going on, tell them why you think you need to be tested and take their advice,” Dr. Venditti explained.
“If they say yes, you should, they have a way of sending an order to many of the institutions represented here for testing. If they say you don’t need
testing, then you should be reassured that you don’t need testing,” Dr. Venditti added.
“When a patient arrives with signs and symptoms suggestive of infection, we all have established ways of safely testing those patients. At Albany Med, we have put up a tent. It’s on our campus in a parking lot somewhat removed from our emergency department. This is going to allow us to safely test patients while maintaining safe access for other patients who need our emergency services,” Dr. Venditti explained on how the isolation centers work.
Dr. David Liebers, infectious disease specialist and Ellis Medicine’s vice president and chief medical officer, explained how the process of isolating patients is in step with making sure medical staff are being kept safe
“We use the so- called identify, isolate and inform process. We identify the likely patient. We immediately isolate them appropriately and then we inform our public health authorities so they’re all on the same page,” Dr. Liebers said.
“When patients are admitted, they’re placed in an isolation room. Staff are educated in how to take care of these patients and we’re working to try to limit the number of staff exposed to these patients, [so] that we can keep as many of our staff as healthy as possible and actively working,” Dr. Liebers added.
Dr. Venditti reiterated the importance we can all take in mitigating the spread of the virus, including common sense measures laid out by the CDC, such as washing your hands.
“While the coronavirus is indeed a public health concern, the risk of severe illness in healthy individuals is very small. It’s a very important point. We can all protect ourselves from infection and help prevent the spread of this virus by following the common sense prevention guidelines that the CDC has put out there,” Dr. Venditti said.
“Wash your hands, wash them often, wash them for 20 seconds. Avoid touching your eyes, your mouth, your face. When your cough or sneeze, cover it in the crook of your elbow. Avoid contact with sick people and if you’re sick, don’t go to work, particularly if you have respiratory symptoms and a fever. It can’t be said enough that this is not the time to panic but rather to plan and prepare,” Dr. Venditti added on taking preventative steps.
All of the area hospitals have command centers and have been in constant coordination in monitoring the spread of the virus.
“We’ve all begun surge planning. Obviously, we hope with our approach of identifying infected individuals in home quarantine, which again the vast majority of patients who become infected with this virus will have a mild to moderate respiratory illness that can be managed by home quarantine, without need of medical attention. So the degree that we can identify those individuals and quarantine them at home, we’ll limit the spread of this virus,” Dr. Steven Hanks, chief clinical officer at St. Peter’s Health
Partners said.
Dr. Hanks also spoke to how each site is handling the processing of patients with a still inadequate supply of testing kits.
“We have all stood up alternative testing sites and this is to protect the public and to protect our patients and protect our colleagues. If they meet the CDC testing criteria they will be sent to these testing facilities, which is much better than sending them to any of an infinite number of ambulatory practice sites or urgent cares. This will help in containment and also control of the testing which is still unfortunately in somewhat limited supply,” Dr. Hanks noted.
Dr. Dennis P. McKenna, incoming president and CEO of Albany Med, emphasized the need for calm and open communication in dealing with the health pandemic.
“For those who will require additional care, we assure you we are ready for any contingency. The most important thing for me to communicate is this, we understand that people have questions, and we understand that some people may be scared, but we assure you we are prepared to care for our community. We are prepared to care for our neighbors, regardless of their needs. There is no reason for alarm. There is no reason for panic,” Dr. McKenna said.
Dr. McKenna also urged community leaders and officials to collaborate in an effort to mitigate the virus.
“Please partner with us. Work with our local hospitals. Work with your local health care experts, your hospitals and health departments. We share in your desire to do things in a safe way,” Dr. McKenna said.
“We ask that as decisions are being made that they are based on science and informed by the medical and public health experts that are standing in this room and that are working at county health departments,” Dr. McKenna added of the importance of taking a sound scientific approach to the pandemic.
Below are a listing of the test locations:
• Albany Med White tent next to Emergency Department. 43 New Scotland Ave., Albany. Use the ambulance ramp from the corner of Myrtle Avenue and New Scotland Avenue.
• Columbia Memorial Health
Emergency Department. 71 Prospect Ave., Hudson.
CMH Rapid Care: Copake. 283 Mountain View Rd., Copake.
CMH Rapid Care: Valatie. 2827 Route 9, Valatie. • Ellis Medicine Ground level, Rosa Road parking garage. 1101 Nott St., Schenectady. Patients drive up and remain in their cars for testing. Prescriptions are required. • Saratoga Hospital Tent next to Emergency Department. 211 Church St., Saratoga Springs. Use the ambulance ramp on Myrtle Street. Specimen collection is by appointment only and must be ordered by a licensed health care provider, the New York State Department of Health or Saratoga County Public Health Services. There is no walk-in testing.
• St. Peter’s Health Partners
Albany Memorial Campus. 600 Northern Blvd., Albany. Follow signs to the Conklin entrance. Hours: 8 a.m. To 8 p.m.