WRH begins non-emergency procedures; helps nursing home

Whitfield Regional Hospital continues to monitor its staff and patients carefully during the COVID-19 pandemic, but there are signs that things are easing slightly.

CEO/Administrator Doug Brewer said diagnostic imaging began Friday for patients other than emergency. On Monday the hospital will begin elective surgery procedures as well.

But the coronavirus continues to dominate all activities at the hospital. No visitors are allowed; masks are required by anyone in the hospital; every member of the staff is monitored daily; everyone has been instructed on how to put on and take off PPEs safely to avoid further virus contamination.

On April 24, the hospital also was asked to help in an emergency situation with a nursing home in Columbiana where an outbreak of COVID-19 forced it to be shut down while the Alabama National Guard conducted a full cleaning of the facility.

WRH is a member of the Alabama Emergency Management System (AEMS) and accepted several COVID positive patients from the nursing home who were not showing any symptoms of the virus. The patients will stay at WRH until they are clear of the infection.

Brewer said the hospital had up to 18 COVID-positive patients last week, including local residents. He said the number of patients being treated in the hospital for the virus fluctuates between 12 and 18.

It is “hard and exhausting” work for the nurses and support staff that treat, bathe, feed and otherwise take care of the patients. “The really hard work falls to our RNs, our personal care technicians, our LPNs who rotate through and provide the hands-on care,” he said.

In spite of the coronavirus emergency, the hospital continues to plan for the future, especially since Marengo County voters approved the 4 mill property tax in December. Brewer said an engineer was on site inspecting the heating and cooling system in anticipation of replacing it.

We are moving forward,” he said. “I just again want to thank taxpayers.”

The hospital had 46 patients last week. In thanking the county for supporting the property tax, Brewer said, “Quite honestly (the COVID-19 pandemic) would have shut us down. There is no way we could have handled this if that wouldn’t have happened.”

As of Friday morning, the Alabama Department of Public Health registered 49 cases of COVID-19 in Marengo County. The death count remains at three.