Ascension Via Christi has made additional changes to its visitation policy.
During Wednesday’s COVID-19 public update, hospital president Bob Copple said the hospital has moved back to more restrictive visitor guidelines, including one person for beginning or end of life matters.
“This is really in a response to not only seeing positives in the community but just concerns with staff or providers being exposed. We’re trying to minimize that as much as possible,” he said.
Other than those instances, Copple says they have halted visitation again to all of their facilities.
“We are continuing the pre-procedure screening if you are coming to the hospital for surgery, everybody is going to get a pre-procedure swab for COVID. The reason for that is trying to avoid complications that a lot of patients have if they are COVID positive from either any kind of anesthesia or even some of the procedures,” he said.
The measures, listed in a release from the hospital read as follows:
- One visitor (must be over the age of 18) will be allowed for the following scenarios:
○ Labor and Delivery patients may have one consistent visitor present throughout the hospital course.
○ Pediatric patients may have one consistent parent/guardian present throughout the hospital course.
○ Other patients may be allowed one visitor on a case-by-case basis as approved by department leadership.
- Screening will continue for everyone entering the hospital through limited entrances (Patient Entrance and Emergency Entrance) and at off-site clinics and therapy centers.
- Anyone who affirms that they have a fever, cough or difficulty breathing will be asked not to visit and should return when he or she is no longer symptomatic. They also will be advised to consider a virtual visit through Facebook, Skype or other online platforms.
- Those who are approved to visit will be asked to limit their movement within the hospital to and from the patient’s room.
Researchers at Ascension Via Christi have also launched a partnership with the Mayo Clinic, with clinical trials related to plasma and the coronavirus to help very ill hospitalized patients.
“What you do is take plasma from somebody who is recovered but had been positive COVID and that is given then to a patient who is ill. The thought is that the antibodies from the person who is recovered would be able to help the patient who is ill fight off the virus and recover themselves,” he said.
Copple says they have delivered plasma to some patients over the past three months. It’s still too early to tell if this can be an effective way of treating the coronavirus. One of the challenges with the trial, Copple says is collecting plasma from those who have recovered.
“They actually need a lot of that material so they can give it to a bunch of different patients and watch the data. So that probably is still the biggest obstacle for that study. We’ve seen positive outcomes around the country from some patients with that strategy. We’ve also seen outcomes where that strategy didn’t work at all,” he said.
The number of positive cases of COVID-19 has steadied out somewhat with the region now seeing more recoveries than new infections for a second straight day.
On Wednesday, Riley County reported eight new positive cases while recording 12 more recoveries. The active number of cases is now 141, with 181 people now listed as recovered, according to the health department. There remains one positive patient on a ventilator in the hospital with one person also now under investigation, awaiting test results. In total 325 Riley County residents have tested positive since the pandemic began, with three COVID-related deaths among them. There are 232 pending tests and the county has recorded 3,125 negatives.
Pottawatomie County has just five active cases and 78 people listed as recovered, for a total of 83 overall. None of those five individuals are hospitalized. The county has 36 pending tests, and overall have tested 1,522 patients since the pandemic began.
Sam Hennigh and Brandon Peoples contributed to this story.
