Hospital CEO Talks Importance Of Following Guidelines, Testing, And More
St. James Parish Hospital CEO MaryEllen Pratt was once again kind enough to give the News Examiner-Enterprise a few minutes of her time to answer questions and discuss the COVID-19 pandemic and what we, the public, can to do to help those battling the virus on the front line.
Pratt, when asked what message she had for the local community as we begin to see the number of new cases of COVID-19 steadily leveling off, she said the message is that we need to stay focused and to continue to follow the Stay at Home and other guidelines issued by Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards.
“We need to stay at home until we are told not to,” said Pratt. “We have made such good progress that this is not the time to revert because we would lose all the gains we have made by adhering to the Governor’s Stay at Home order. The last thing we want to do is to go back to where we were before.”
“So, we need to follow the recommendations and we need to stick it out for a bit longer.”
Testing
As stated in the above article on the drive through testing site at Gramercy Elementary, officials, including Pratt, are asking members of the public, even those without symptoms of COVID-19, to take advantage of the testing site and get tested.
Pratt said by getting tested and the result being negative the person can have some peace of mind knowing they are safe and cannot spread the virus to others. On the other hand, if a test comes back positive for COVID-19, then that person knows to selfquarantine and stay away from others to prevent further spreading the virus.
“I really think people should get tested if they are concerned,” said Pratt.
Also concerning testing, Pratt was asked whether testing to determine who has been exposed and has developed natural antibodies for COVID-19 is or will be available; and if she thought this type of test would be essential moving forward in the fight against the Coronavirus.
Concerning the availability of the antibody test here locally, Pratt said the hospital is diligently working on gathering/ordering all the necessary supplies, equipment and reagents necessary to run the tests, but at this time it is not available.
Pratt says there is no doubt the antibody test will be an important piece moving forward, but stressed its not the panacea.
“What we don’t know is what does having antibodies really mean in terms of someone’s resistance to the virus,” Pratt said. “We can test and know someone has been exposed and that their immune system has responded, but how long that will last is not known. Is it a month, several months or a year or more?”
“How long does that protection last? Until we know that it really won’t help us change the way we are currently doing things much.”
Pratt also said the antibody test alone does not tell if someone is infectious or not.
“It tells us they had it but not if they can shed the virus,” said Pratt. “That is why it is important to do the other (nasal swab) test to determine if there is active virus in their system and that they need to take measures to protect themselves and others by staying quarantined.”
Plans To Begin Opening the Hospital Back Up
Pratt shared a few thoughts on what it will take for the hospital, once it gets clearance from the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH), to start scheduling what is now refered to as Medically Necessary/Time Sensitive (MNTS) procedures and surgeries.
Since COVID-19 has shown its ugly face, hospitals around the state, country and world have cancelled/postponed many elective surgeries and procedures; and Pratt said although many patients were ok not to have certain elective procedures, some are now becoming more urgent.
“For example, we could have a patient that we put off from having his/her gall bladder removed,” Pratt said. “It was a bit uncomfortable, but the patient was ok, so we opted not to do it. But, after a while it can become dangerous if someone has a diseased gall bladder.”
Pratt said she is anticipating the LDH will announce in the near future that hospitals may begin to schedule MNTS procedures and that she and her staff are in the beginning phase of evaluating how the hospital prioritizes what procedures are MNTS.
A major part of the planning process is figuring out the amount of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) needed moving forward.
“The amount of PPE we have access to will play a big part in how MNTS procedures are scheduled and planned,” said Pratt. “We need to make sure we have enough PPE to treat our COVID-19 cases as well as enough PPE to safely perform surgeries and procedures. We are working on all of this now and we will present a plan to the medical staff in the near future.”
When asked how the hospital stands concerning PPE, Pratt said it really is a moving target and a day to day challenge.
“The amount of PPE we have at any given moment depends on the amount of patients we have and see,” said Pratt. “So everyday is a different status. It has been difficult to wrap our arms around.”
Pratt said without surgeries and procedures being done she feels like they have enough PPE, but if and when surgeries resume that will have to be planned for to make sure there is enough to safely treat patients.
Another concern surrounding PPE, and another reason it has been difficult to keep a steady supply, is the fact that many COVID-19 patients the hospital staff is caring for often require lengthy hospital stays and need a fair amount of rehabilitative services to get well enough for independent living.
Pratt said on Monday that earlier that day the hospital staff celebrated discharging an 84-year old man after he spent 17- days in the hospital recovering from COVID-19.
Our conversation wrapped up with Pratt sharing just how complicated and how many questions loom surrounding treating and planning for COVID-19.
“We also have to think about and prepare for the possibility of a second wave of cases,” said Pratt. “You hear about an anticipated second wave and when it could possibly hit. How would we manage through that should it come?
These are just some of the questions we are thinking about. There are a lot of unknowns and we are just taking it one day at a time and we do what we can.”
We can all agree there is still a lot we do not know about COVID-19, but one thing we do know is that social distancing, frequent hand washing, not touching our faces, staying home and away from others when we are sick, and the other safety measures work.
Please keep in mind that just because the number of new cases of COVID-19 each day have leveled off a bit does not mean the virus is or has gone away.
Let’s not get complacent. In fact, now is the time to double down on our efforts to stop the spread in our community.
I know most of the public is doing their part in stopping the spread, but I’m sure I am not alone in seeing many areas in our community where there is little to no effort to social distance.
If you do not care enough about your own well being and the health of those around and close to you, please think about all the nurses and doctors, healthcare workers, first responders, police, truck drivers, grocery store cashiers, and all the other essential workers out there putting themselves in harms way to help take care of us all.
You never know if or when you may need these people to care for you and