Update to the community from Joanne Marqusee, President and Chief Executive Officer, Cooley Dickinson Health Care
First, I want to reassure you that Cooley Dickinson is here for the community. We are doing everything we can to take care of patients already impacted by this virus and to prepare for the increased number of patients expected over the next several weeks. Our mission is to provide high quality healthcare to people in the Pioneer Valley and we are focused on that, now more than ever.
Testing: We receive many questions about testing. While testing capacity is improving, it is still quite limited. Thus Cooley, like all hospitals, are applying strict criteria for who gets tested. Currently this includes people in the hospital and health care workers with COVID symptoms, as well as patients referred from PCPs whose symptoms may require more care than the many people with minor symptoms who are being told to self-isolate at home. If you are experiencing symptoms, please call your primary care provider. If you don’t have one, our community call center can help you obtain one. Cooley has many providers accepting new patients.
Surge Capacity: We are working hard to create “surge” capacity so that we are prepared to take care of the anticipated significant increase of patients needing hospital care, particularly Intensive Care Unit (ICU) level care. We will be able to at least double our inpatient capacity (compared to our normal operating levels) if/when needed through creative use of all clinical space, equipment and staff. Particularly important, we will be able to roughly triple the number of intensive care patients we can serve. We are also expanding Emergency Department capacity. It is difficult to know if that will be enough and we will continue to work to maximize our capacity.
We are grateful for the knowledge and resources being part of Massachusetts General Hospital and Partners Health Care brings to us every day. We follow best practices from across the system, and from the Centers for Disease Control and other organizations. We are also collaborating with other hospitals and healthcare organizations across western Massachusetts on surge planning and how together we can best meet the needs of our communities.
The State is also planning for additional capacity by setting up some “field hospitals” in a few sites and identifying nursing homes that can be dedicated to COVID positive patients. We advocate for this and other assistance from the state and federal governments.
Outpatient care: Our medical practices, physical, occupational and speech therapy and other outpatient services have rescheduled nonurgent and wellness visits and have implemented telemedicine as a way to deliver care without having people come into the office when possible. Please contact your providers office for more information. Our Southampton Urgent Care location is open for non-respiratory illnesses. Our Orthopedic Injury Clinic in Hatfield has expanded its hours and is open 8a – 8p Monday – Friday beginning Monday 4/6 and Saturday and Sunday noon – 8pm beginning Saturday 4/11 for orthopedic injuries such as fractures, strains, sprains, dislocations and lacerations so that people do not have to go to the Emergency Department should they get injured.
Community Outreach: Particularly at a time like this, we view our role to extend beyond serving the clinical needs of our community. We are focusing heavily on finding ways to keep our community informed about what they should do and about what Cooley is doing. We have set up a COVID-19 section of the website, which includes recent updates, information for the public and our most recent COVID-19 metrics. You can access it here.
In addition, we have established a COVID-19 community call center, staffed Monday – Friday from 8 am to 6:30 pm and Saturday and Sunday from 8 am to 5 pm by health care workers who can field general questions about COVID-19. Those types of inquiries include how and where to donate medical-grade supplies; how to access a primary care provider, if someone doesn’t have one; and where to seek care for something other than a respiratory illness, such as urgent care or the orthopedic injury clinic. The Community Call Center phone number is 1-888-554-4234.
Thank you! We at Cooley Dickinson greatly appreciate the outpouring of support from the community. Donations of funds and supplies, patience and understanding about our strict guidelines regarding visitors and staying home with minor symptoms, offers to provide services to staff such as dog sitting and yard work, and letters as well as social media expressing their appreciation for Cooley and our staff – all of these mean the world to us. Thank you!
The staff at Cooley have been nothing short of amazing. I am in awe of their commitment to our patients, our community, and each other. We are doing all we can to support them, through expressions of gratitude, use of best practices to protect them, a wage security program, opportunities to work remotely, and various resources for their emotional and mental health.
It is of paramount importance that everybody do all they can to reduce the spread of COVID19. Whatever you were doing yesterday, double your efforts today. Social distancing, hand hygiene, surface cleaning – we all must do all of these. Our community will be better off, and Cooley will be better able to meet the needs of our community.