OHIO – Staying connected during times of crisis will help us all as we focus on the health and safety of our community during this pandemic. That’s why we are committing to sharing updates with you on a regular basis, helping you understand how your hospital is responding, preparing, adapting, and working with leaders like you to ensure we’re able to provide the best care for our community.
We know this is an uncertain time, and that there are questions and anxiety around what’s next. We want to reassure you that we are working hard to serve our patients in Pickaway County and its
surrounding areas. We are making decisions fast, but it’s always with our associates, physicians, and patients in mind. That’s because we are working to keep people out of our hospitals to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19 and to prepare for a surge of patients that will come in the future.
Locally, we’ve taken quick actions that we’d like to share with you:
• We’ve canceled elective surgeries, appointments, and procedures to conserve supplies
• We’ve restricted visitors to keep our community safe and we are screening everyone who enters our care sites to ensure they’re healthy
• We’ve dedicated specific units to cohort patients
• We’re evaluating staffing needs and looking to redeploy associates to support the business and the needs of our patients
• We’ve created a Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) donation center at Berger
• We’ve launched new advertising that helps our community learn about what they can do to stay healthy and assure our patients that we’re moving quickly to be able to provide the best care
possible
OhioHealth is also working to support its associates and providers:
• Focusing on resiliency among our associates and providers. This is a marathon not a sprint.
• Implementing PPE conservation measures to keep our associates and providers safe, while seeking innovative ways to keep our supply levels adequate
• Innovating care using InTouch Technology. On Monday, all OhioHealth hospitals, including Berger, received iPads with HIPAA-compliant InTouch technology to have in all rooms for COVID
suspected or COVID positive patients. There will also be iPads at the nurses’ station so the clinician or provider can use that iPad to have a video discussion with the patient to reduce the
amount of times that a clinician has to go in the room.
We know you want to help. Here’s what you can do and what you can encourage your organizations/employees to do as well:
• Support our no visitor policy
• Call your primary care physician if you’re not feeling well. He/She can help you decide if you need to come to one of our sites for care
• Stay home, wash your hands, and maintain social distancing if/when you need to go out
• Abide by the Governor’s directives to help contain the spread of the virus
• Donate available PPE equipment by using our established donation center at Berger
• Use this email address if you wish to donate supplies that aren’t used for PPE: [email protected]. Someone will be in touch to answer your question and discuss your offer of help.
• Support our efforts to spread factual information and advice for staying healthy. The OhioHealth Blog is full of great information and advice. Please feel free to share the information we provide
there!
Situations like COVID-19, shine a spotlight on the generosity and support of our community. Several organizations, including restaurants and other vendors, have reached out to offer support to our associates and physicians by offering discounts and even delivering free food to our hospitals.
To ensure the safety of our associates and to support the community with social distancing, we can no longer accept food donations to our hospitals or other OhioHealth locations. We are grateful for the support and want to encourage anyone in our community wishing to help to please consider supporting our associates in other ways such as financial support through the OhioHealth Associate Emergency Assistance Fund, supporting our PPE and medical supply donation centers, and continuing to offer
restaurant and other discounts which we will promote to our associates.
As always, I thank you for your partnership and collaboration. Now, more than ever, it’s important to stay in touch as we work together to care for our community. I’ll continue to send updates regularly, but if you have questions or feedback for me, I encourage you to call me directly at (740) 412-6515. As you
can imagine, I’m not sitting at my desk very much these days, so I’m sharing my cell number so you can reach me more easily.
Yours in good health,
Tim Colburn
President, OhioHealth Berger Hospital
