Coronavirus Update: March 20, 2020

COVID 19: 27,000 new cases were reported worldwide yesterday, with more than 4,300 of those in America and 25 in Indiana.  Indiana has had a total of 80 Cases in 27 Counties and 2 Deaths; 554 have been tested.

Since the last update, California, New York, and Illinois have all issued “shelter in place” notices to their residents and the federal government began work on a third bill to provide support to those most impacted by this crisis.

Should your friends and family have questions on the virus, its impact, and the preparations Hancock Health has undertaken, please refer them to our website (http://www.hancockregionalhospital.org/coronavirus/) which has a growing body of resources to help.  Following are a few updates prior to the weekend:

• The Hancock COVID Triage hotline (317) 325.2683 (COVD) is being staffed by an exceptional team.
• The Hancock COVID Triage clinic continues to hone its processes.
• We have begun the work to retrofit our Reflections Unit into a temporary COVID-19 treatment unit and this work should be done by the end of next week.
• We are continuing our policy of allowing one visitor per patient for the time being and are working with our counterparts in other hospitals to create a unified approach and are finalizing our “virtual visitation” as well. Our visitor screening teams are doing outstanding work to welcome folks while at the same time ensuring their safety.
• Conservation of PPE continues to be critical as supplies throughout the country run low. We are blessed to be finding new avenues to find additional PPE and for a very generous Hancock community as well who are finding and bringing in additional supplies.
• We are developing a temporary transportation team to help our patients make it to their health care appointments since other transportation options are closing for a while.
• To provide our leadership staff a respite while we still have the chance, the Incident Command Center will be covered via call over the weekend and will resume full operations on Monday at 6:00 AM.

This weekend looks to be a bit chilly so it will be a great opportunity to stay home, read a book or binge-watch something on Netflix!