MIDLAND, Texas — It’s a new month in West Texas, which means many COVID-19 related restrictions are being lifted and more people are heading back to work after months of social distancing and quarantine.
Even hospitals are trying to get back to normal.
Midland Memorial has continued to see fewer and fewer COVID-19 patients, and now they're working on getting back to business.
From construction projects, to getting rid of the COVID unit, we're starting to see promising signs that we’re getting back to normal.
After three months, Midland Memorial Hospital is starting to see fewer COVID-19 patients.
“From the start of this COVID crisis we’ve been working on properly assigning beds and units to allow for the proper isolation, as the COVID population has gotten so small it becomes very difficult to do that, efficient staffing requires more patients to one or two on a unit, so we’re beginning to repurpose our beds around the hospital.”
The hospital has gotten rid of the COVID floor and is shifting around more beds as they begin construction on the Scharbauer Tower.
“We’ve got construction going on on the ninth floor, we're building out the originally shelved unit on top of the Scharbauer Tower, and that’s got some impact on the floors below, especially on eight, as penetrations are made in the floor we have to take you know a few rooms down at a time. So it’s a lot of room and assignment shuffling going on throughout the hospital but the declining COVID census makes it easier to manage that.”
Another thing they can mange? Having more visitors.
“Every patient, inpatient or outpatient, may have one support person come with them and accompany them. In pediatrics were allowing both parents to be with them, and labor and delivery can now have two people with them.”
And when it comes to personal protective gear, they are in good shape.
“We’re going back to more traditional use of personal protective equipment. At this point, we’ve moved now to a single shift use.”
As for volunteers, those who are under the age of 65 who feel comfortable returning to the hospital will be able to volunteer there this summer.