JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (WJAC) — Conemaugh Health System will resume elective procedures this week, Market President Bill Caldwell said.
“We’re going to be taking it very thoughtful and deliberately,” Caldwell explained. “We’re not going from 0 miles per hour to 100 miles per hour over night. We’re going to phase this in, especially for elective surgeries over a four to five-week period, but we want to do it in a thoughtful way – we want to be safe for our patients, we want to be safe for our staff.”
Caldwell said all elective surgery patients will be tested for COVID-19.
Meanwhile, from a healthcare capability standpoint, Caldwell says he believes Cambria County is in a good position to move into the “yellow phase” of the reopening process.
“We’ve got testing capability, we’ve got capacity – whether it’s beds or ventilators – we’ve got adequate PPE,” Caldwell said. “Those are all the check marks that I would be going through when looking at an individual county or region from a healthcare capability.”
Caldwell notes that there are other factors in Gov. Wolf’s and Health Secretary Levine’s decision making.
He says Conemaugh has completed nearly 1,600 COVID-19 tests so far and they are able to have results in 24 hours or less.
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