With COVID cases continuing to increase, Adena Health System is rescheduling elective surgical procedures that require an overnight hospital stay.
Effective Wednesday, September 15, Adena Health System is rescheduling its elective surgical procedures for a later date that require an overnight stay in the hospital through next week. This temporary change is being made out of an abundance of caution due to a significant increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations and record-high patient volumes.
Adena leadership is making this decision in order to continue providing safe, high-quality care to the influx of patients requiring hospitalization due to both COVID-19 and unrelated serious medical issues.
“We have carefully evaluated different avenues where we can make operational adjustments that will be best for the short term to relieve some of the pressure off of our hospital inpatient census, provide needed beds and give support to providers and caregivers,” said Adena President and CEO Jeff Graham. “Taking these steps will allow us to care for our patients and staff in the optimal way. This is a thoughtful approach to make sure those patients who don’t need to be in the hospital right away are not.”
The number of community members hospitalized at Adena’s four hospitals as a result of COVID-19 has continued to rise. COVID hospitalizations for Adena stood at a high mark of 74 this morning, with 55 of those patients being unvaccinated. In addition, inpatient census for Adena Regional Medical Center today was over 200 hospitalizations across all medical conditions, which strains hospital capacity.
“These adjustments and what is going on with high patient volumes is not just with Adena,” Graham added. “Similar operational adjustments in order to provide the best care possible are happening all over. What has been great about our organization is being able to handle situations as we’ve done so well over the past 19 months and this is just another situation that we need to address.”
Adena will continually monitor this fluid surge and will resume elective surgeries requiring a hospital stay as the situation improves. Adena is working closely with its medical group to ensure that patient care is prioritized as best as possible. Affected patients will be contacted by Adena to work through rescheduling and help answer any questions.
Adena, and other health care organizations across the region and beyond, continue to strongly urge everyone to get vaccinated. The COVID-19 vaccine is free and readily available. The vaccines are our best defense against further spread of the virus and effective in preventing serious illness and death. The Delta variant spreads faster than earlier forms of the virus that causes COVID-19, so getting vaccinated is the most important thing you can do to protect yourself and others.