By Teri Knight, News Director
Is Northfield Hospital and Clinics ready should there be a surge of covid-19 patients? A tough question posed to NH&C CEO, Steve Underdahl. He said, I think so, adding, “and I say that with only a little bit of trepidation because there are so many moving parts. I think we feel like we’ve done all of the things that we can rationally do to prepare ourselves to be ready for what happens”. From local to perhaps a role in aiding larger
communities. With lead time they had, “to really do two things, we had to kind of stand down our normal Medical Center Operations, and, in the same period of time, stand up all of these new systems and processes that really transformed us into an emergency response system rather than just a hospital and clinic”. He praised their team for the work they did to transform their facility. NH&C has “a good supply of PPE’s”. The State is coordinating resources through a shared website. As for ventilators, NH&C is not a ventilator unit, “So we have a small number of ventilators and ventilator like equipment, primarily anesthesia equipment that we can use to manage vent patients for a period of time until we can get them transferred to an ICU that has a vent”. He added that when you hear of ICU beds being talked about right now, those are beds with a vent. The shared website mentioned, includes what capabilities each facility has. As for a higher level of care for someone that may need it due to Covid-19, they would be transported to a facility with that capability. Underdahl’s full interview is HERE.
Caring for those in congregate living top focus for MDH
Those in congregate living situations are a focus for MN Dept. of Health Commissioner, Jan Malcolm. She stated yesterday afternoon that they would like to avoid a hospital transfer of a patient in congregate living, “because that is just kind of a recipe for more transmission back and forth. So we’re working hard at those transitions of care”. She added that the transmissions started outside the facilities, be it from healthcare workers who didn’t know they were exposed or family and friends that brought it in before the restrictions were put in place. Infectious disease Director, Kris Ehresmann said they are, “working with the State Emergency Operations Center to get them personal protective equipment. So our focus at this point really is on these congregate care settings because they do represent both a vulnerable population and a population that could easily overwhelm the healthcare system”. They’re also working to help those living communities expand their capacity to care for patients.
Nice days, distance learning finds some students “distracted”
One of the KYMN crew, Logan Wells, gathered thoughts from a few Northfield high school students on their first day of distance learning. Greenlee Dahle, an 11th grader said she kept getting distracted in her room when she should be focusing on school work, adding,”I definitely miss the high school environment and I never thought I’d say that”. Amelia Arnold is a 10th grader, she thought it nice to stay home but also found it hard to motivate herself to the homework. She liked how the high school schedule works, providing lots of breaks and time to do work outside of zoom class, adding that she appreciates “how hard the northfield high school staff has worked to pull this off”. Paige Mier is a 9th grader, she said her day was very easy, yet chaotic at the same time, adding that most of the students shared the same confusion with assignments and technology problems”. Superintendent Matt Hillmann will be on the air tomorrow morning at 8:45 to talk about the first days of distance learning from a staff side.
MDH reports 4th case in Rice Co. – 17th death statewide
Rice County Public Health was notified March 31st by the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) of a fourth lab confirmed case of COVID-19 in Rice County. Limited information only indicates that the case is someone in their 20’s. As of April 1st, Minnesota has had 689 lab confirmed cases of COVID-19, with approximately 21,191 tests completed. 30% of cases were related to community transmission in Minnesota. 122 cases have required hospitalization and there have been 17 deaths.
