Edinburg Hospital, DHR Health is screening everyone who walks through their doors for symptoms, but are taking it a step further to make sure staff and patients are safe.
“We’ve got a system that works very well,” said Chief Medical officer of DHR Health Dr. Robert Martinez. “We’ve set up beds off-site to be able to move and isolate those patients and isolate the staff and services that they need over there.”
Positive COVID-19 patients are kept separated and PPE is being changed by health professionals after they visit them.
“Universal precautions is what we’re talking about,” Dr. Martinez said. “It’s the standard of care when we move around in places of care like this in the hospital. We try to be as sterile as possible.”
This minimizes the contamination risk with patients that might have to go back and forth to get surgeries or other treatments.
Dr. Martinez says with the delta variant so active, it’s nothing to take chances with.
“Everybody gets tested. Everyone that’s coming into my hospital, that’s having a procedure, that gets admitted here, the emergency room; everyone gets tested,” Dr. Martinez said.
Dr. Martinez says testing may cost the hospital money but it’s important to know if a patient has the virus while in the hospital, even if they didn’t initially come in for it. Not only can this help other patients and staff but also their family when released.
