With all the attention paid to reopening the economy at the local, state and national levels, attention locally is now starting to focus on when medical services can resume normal operations at Newman Regional Health.
As part of the KVOE-Newman Regional Health COVID-19 Community Briefing on Tuesday, hospital CEO Bob Wright said some services will ramp up soon once the statewide stay-home order comes to an end.
Outpatient well visits, now slated for weekday mornings, will likely see more activity.
On the other hand, Wright says the hospital is “a good ways away” from certain elective procedures. Total joint procedures and appointments needing a lot of blood may not get back to a normal schedule until June or July.
Patient volumes have stayed elevated on the inpatient side, in part because the hospital is keeping COVID-19 for an extended period of time. Revenues for elective inpatient procedures and outpatient diagnostic procedures could be off as much as 40 percent this month after being down 20 percent in March. Wright says federal lawmakers did not include government-owned hospitals in the $2.2 trillion CARES Act stimulus package. Public hospitals are included in the current stimulus package, but Wright has not said how much money could be coming to Newman Regional Health.
The COVID-19 Community Briefings take place at 10:06 am every Tuesday and Friday on 14 KVOE, 96.9 FM and KVOE-TV at KVOE.com.
