Business Connection Kelso Longview Chamber of Commerce
PeaceHealth's Catherine Kroll and Cherelle Montayne deliver their message in the Chamber newsletter and on Your Chamber Connection
Call out for help with critical care
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o all those we serve:
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need it.
Our communities are experiencing a significant public health crisis and PeaceHealth St. John Medical Center needs your help to ensure the care we all depend on will be here for those who
In recent months we have been meeting an unprecedented need for health care services, including caring for an exceptionally high number of patients through PeaceHealth St. John’s Emergency September 2021 Department. Typically when volume at any one hospital is very high, other hospitals in the region Volume 13 • Issue 9 can be relied on to help meet the needs of patients. Now, however, every hospital in our region is Business Connection experiencing the same situation and most are unable to accept transfers. We must plan for how is published monthly by the to address the needs of our community on our own—we cannot assume that outside help will be Kelso Longview Chamber of Commerce available. 105 N. Minor Road • Kelso, WA 98626 New, highly transmissible COVID-19 variants are making more people more ill. To care for them, we have expanded our COVID-19 inpatient unit to accommodate up to 32 patients. This reduces the beds we have available for other patients. This has the greatest effect on the most critically ill patients who need Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds. Unable to rely on other hospitals to accept STAFF ICU patients, our community has now reached a tipping point. Bill Marcum, CEO Julie Rinard, Project Manager We should all be concerned about what the coming weeks will hold. Projections from Oregon Pam Fierst, Office Manager Health and Science University (OHSU) indicate that the delta variant will continue to spread Maxine Nightcourte, Social Media Service rapidly, with particularly severe hospitalization impacts for the unvaccinated. When patients do
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360-423-8400 kelsolongviewchamber.org To advertise, call Bill Marcum 360-423-8400 or bmarcum@kelsolongviewchamber.org Ad Deadline 20th of Each Month
recover enough to no longer require 24-hour hospitalization, local skilled nursing facilities are unable to accept them because they are also full—exacerbating the impact on available hospital beds. To meet these challenges, we have initiated the first steps in our plan to provide continuity of care. We are temporarily canceling all elective procedures that would result in an overnight stay, keeping those beds and those caregivers available for patients with emergency health issues. We are also readying plans to quickly erect and staff our outdoor emergency patient treatment center, a tent structure complete with electricity and plumbing. We ask your help with two very specific issues: 1) Please use PeaceHealth St. John’s Emergency Department for emergency medical situations only. We have seen an unfortunate increase in the number of people coming For more PeaceHealth, see page 2