Note: The following questions – including some suggested by ANC readers – were emailed to communications departments at both Mercy Medical Center and Shasta Regional Medical Center in Redding.
Click here to read Shasta Regional Medical Center’s responses, supplied by SRMC communications director Lynnann Foster.
As of March 31, no response has been received from Mercy Medical Center.
Shasta Regional Medical Center
Q: Who are considered high risk for COVID 19, and how do you decide whether they will be tested?
Q: What about those who display COVID symptoms, but are not considered high risk, or are not tested?
Q: Specifically, how are those displaying COVID symptoms cared for in the hospital, and are they discharged home to quarantine? Why or why not?
Q: If someone tests positive for flu who also has COVID symptoms, is COVID ruled out? It is possible for someone to have both a garden-variety flu and COVID-19?
Q: What part are county, state and federal health organizations playing in helping and supporting your hospital?
Q: Who is in charge of your hospital’s COVID response? How is staff kept in the loop about new procedures and information, especially considering the ongoing changes related to this virus?
Q. What specific measures and procedures have been implemented, different from your routine best healthcare practices – to address OVID-19? For staff? For patients? For visitors?
Q: Can you break down the exact steps, from beginning to end, in place should a person walk into the hospital seeking testing for the virus?
Q: How exactly does the hospital administer the test, where is the sample sent for assessment, and what is the turnaround time for the hospital to receive test results?
Q: In the event someone comes in for testing, but is not gravely ill enough to be admitted, but they’ve been tested and the results are pending, then what? What is the person instructed to do while waiting for the results? How do you ensure compliance?
Q: What about the homeless population, and their lack of places to self-quarantine?
Q: What is the communication process after the results do arrive, both for those who are confirmed infected, and those who are not?
Q: Does the hospital have staff specifically designated to deal with patients with the virus, or is staff working in other parts of the hospital with general population patients?
Q: What measures have been implemented to avoid cross contamination?
Q: As of this email how many tests for COVID-19 have been administered at your hospital?
Q: Is the hospital testing all staff to ensure that some of the employees, especially the younger population who may be infected but symptom-free, are not inadvertently spreading the virus? (If not, why not?)
Q: As of this email, how many confirmed positive test results has the hospital received?
Q: Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions. I invite you to update us as needed with new information. In the meantime, is there anything else I should have asked, that you’d like us to know?
Thanks so much!
Doni Chamberlain
