Elective surgery may return at WMC
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WEIRTON -- Doctors at Weirton Medical Center could soon resume elective procedures on a limited basis.
Earlier this week, Gov. Jim Justice said it should be up to hospitals to decide when it's safe for them to resume elective medical procedures.
Justice, however, said they should first have a plan to safely phase-in elective procedures, an adequate supply of personal protective equipment and a strategy for responding in the event there's another COVID-19 outbreak.
On Thursday, hospital officials said they were ready to ask the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Services to sign off on their strategy.
"The incident command team at WMC has been in place since the onset of this pandemic, and they have done an incredible job of preparing the hospital," WMC President and CEO John Frankovitch said.
"The team is made up of physicians and clinicians across our entire organization and they have worked tirelessly to ensure WMC has adequate facilities and PPE supplies to respond. Fortunately, we have had a low number of cases locally, but we are now able to use this exceptional preparedness to slowly begin the process of resuming selective procedures and surgeries."
In making the announcement, they said with so few cases of COVID-19 in the community, the time was right to ask the state to approve their plan.
"The local rate of positive COVID-19 cases is continuing to run far below the rate in larger metropolitan areas," WMC spokeswoman Kelli McCoy said Thursday. "At WMC, we have tested over 700 patients across our various testing sites and have a positive test rate less than the current state average of 3.6 percent."
As of Thursday, the Hancock County Health Department had reported seven confirmed COVID-19 cases, all of them recovered. Brooke County reported three confirmed cases, one of them recovered. Statewide, there've been 981 confirmed cases and 31 deaths, with 380 of them recovering.
Dr Thomas Lheureau, WMC chairman of surgery, pointed out all medical procedures have a certain amount of risk, "but we are planning to take every feasible precaution to ensure patients, staff and visitors are protected."
"This will include adding COVID-19 testing as part of the pre-operative protocol for non-emergent patients," Lheureau said. "There is not one set of guidelines that will work for every medical condition, and physicians have to balance the risk of delaying a procedure versus any risk of exposure. Our process will continue to be a case-by-case decision by our surgeons and medical staff in consultation with patients and their families."
Frankovitch, meanwhile, said the community support and understanding throughout this crisis "has been overwhelming and greatly appreciated by the entire WMC family."
"The reality is that as the duration of the crisis extends, we are beginning to see patients in need of procedures for chronic conditions that were elective becoming more urgent," Frankovitch said.
In Ohio, hospitals are waiting for Gov. Mike DeWine to give them the go-ahead to resume elective procedures.