The following healthcare partners submitted reports for today:
Shasta County Health and Human Services: After a thorough investigation, Shasta County Public Health is documenting its first case of community transmission of COVID-19. The patient, a man in his 80s, did not have travel history or contact with a known COVID-19 case. He remains hospitalized in isolation. Shasta County tests: 6 positive, 230 negative.
Mercy Medical Center Redding: Mercy Redding continues to refine our surge capacity, including patient placement, equipment and supply deployment, identification of additional negative pressure/isolation rooms, staffing needs for those identified locations, and staff training. Visitor restrictions remain in force, and employees are screened when coming to work. We continue to work with our vendors and suppliers to ensure our clinical staff can safely and appropriately take care of patients. Dignity Health Connected Living continues to serve thousands of high-risk residents with food distributions. Mercy Redding is offering a free virtual visit to anyone concerned about coronavirus. To access a free virtual urgent care visit, visit www.dignityhealth.org/virtualcareanywhere, download the Virtual Care Anywhere app in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, or call 855-356-8053 and use the coupon code COVID19.
Shasta Regional Medical Center: Starting today, Tuesday, March 31, all employees will be screened prior to starting shifts, including temperature checks. We have also streamlined entrance to the hospital to only Main Entrance and our no visitor policy remains in place. We continue to monitor supplies and plan for any potential surge, including the setup of our Negative Pressure Unit that was completed last week. Current patients at Shasta Regional Medical Group may make appointments utilizing our Tele-Medicine system by calling 530-605-4260.
Shasta Community Health Center: All campuses are open including Shasta Lake City and Anderson. We have closed all of our dental facilities except for dental emergencies for our patients at our downtown location in the Shasta College Health Sciences complex. We continue to screen all patients entering our facilities and have established a secondary screening facility at our main campus at 1035 Placer Street. We continue to make plans for a surge of patients with respiratory needs. We have moved many more of our visits (and we routinely do over 500 a day) to telephonic where we can. We are holding steady on personal protective equipment, watching our inventory and burn rate but looking for more items as an edge against a large surge of patients later on. We await the Abbott Labs-announced COVID point of care test kits that promise a positive result in 5 minutes and a negative result in 13 minutes. We await information on its sensitivities, however.
Redding Rancheria Tribal Health Center: We have been screening all patients and staff at all three health campuses since March 10. We are currently running two shifts, each shift is working 1 week on and having 1 week off in an effort to conserve staff, and keep them healthy both physically and emotionally. We have been doing phone call visits between providers and patients and will be allowing patients to schedule virtual visits with their providers starting Monday. We have an ample supply of personal protective equipment, but are running low on test kits. Our urgent care at Churn Creek Health Care is still operating 7 days a week with 2 doctors per day.
Mayers Memorial Hospital District: We began a no-visitor policy on March 6, primarily because of our 90 skilled nursing residents. We have suspended all communal activities in the skilled nursing facility as of March 27. Our social workers and activities department are working to keep avenues of communication open to families and provide alternate activities for the residents. Mayers started screening all employees on March 16 and has a policy in place for screening and employee health. We continue to utilize only one entrance to our facility. We are able to use an isolation trailer to screen, evaluate and collect test specimens on patients if deemed necessary. Collaboration continues with Shasta Regional Medical Center and Mercy on our surge planning, close monitoring of inventory and burn rate of personal protective equipment and supporting our valuable workforce. Mayers has also been active in helping our community with the Groceries to Go program.
