Northumberland Hills Hospital (NHH) staff, physicians and community partners are working very hard to keep ahead of the rapidly evolving situation regarding COVID-19.
“While the global pandemic is changing how we operate, NHH continues to provide essential services,” reiterated Linda Davis, President and CEO.
"NHH’s Incident Command Centre, established earlier this month, has been working at high speed, and the collaboration and communication that is occurring across teams, with our Ontario Health Team of Northumberland partners and between hospital and community physicians, is unlike anything we have ever seen. While there are confirmed positive COVID-19 cases on self-isolation in our community, there are presently no confirmed positive COVID-19 inpatients at NHH. We know that this will change in the coming days. We are grateful for this time, as we quickly scale back non-essential services and scale up for what we expect will be very ill COVID patients. As much capacity as possible is being created for COVID patients’ acute care needs while ensuring those without the virus can also be cared for and kept safe.”
The flood of provincial, national and international information is being monitored by the Command Table to support planning and preparation, and the team is updating processes and procedures as appropriate.
In addition to the process and service changes announced in NHH’s Community Update on March 17—including visitor restrictions, volunteer restrictions, the opening of the NHH COVID-19 Assessment Centre and a phone-in community mental health walk-in counselling clinic alternative—additional changes implemented at NHH this week include:
Active screening for symptoms in all individuals, including staff and physicians, prior to entering the hospital, including temperature readings
Release of new Personal Protective Equipment protocols for procedure (surgical) masks following the receipt of new direction from Ontario Health March 25 – with increasing reports of community spread of the virus, NHH is working to minimize the risk of staff-to-patient or patient-to-staff infection by asking all staff and physicians who work in clinical areas to wear a procedure (surgical) mask when they are working in a patient care or patient-facing area without a structural physical barrier (e.g. plexiglass).
Hands-on training of over 400 staff and physicians to review donning and doffing procedures for essential Personal Protective Equipment
Patient care mapping to establish pre-arranged pathways of care to accommodate the possible scenarios of COVID-19-positive patients who may present to NHH
Shift to essential only services in Diagnostic Imaging, Ambulatory Care and Surgical Services – all non-essential tests or procedure booked at NHH have or are in the process of being postponed and special arrangements have been put in place to safely accommodate those who require urgent Diagnostic, Ambulatory or Surgical care
Ongoing collaboration with regional partners in our area at a new COVID-19 table to help work together as a team across all five hospitals in our region (Haliburton Highlands, Ross Memorial, Campbellford Memorial, NHH and Peterborough Regional) to ensure care for the most critically ill
“We are watching our colleagues in other countries, to our south, and bracing. None of us know what it will be like for Ontario or Northumberland, but we are all committed to doing our very best to prepare,” said Davis.
“The single most important thing we would like our community to do for us is to help us by helping Canada flatten the curve,” said Davis. “Simply put, we need to stop the spread of this infection. If you are not deemed essential, we ask that you stay home. It is everyone’s duty in this province to practice social distancing as strictly as possible. "
“By following the directions of our public health experts and taking pre-emptive steps together to slow the spread of this virus and ‘flatten the COVID-19’ curve, your hospital team is working to ensure that we will continue to be here for you and your family if and when you need us.”
