MEMORIAL HOSPITAL AND MANOR

bringing patients hope

Many small businesses across the country were ravaged last year by COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns. Restaurants, bars and gyms were some of the worst hit. But, how has Memorial Hospital and Manor preformed in this new landscape, and how has it’s relationship with the public been impacted?

According to CEO Jim Lambert, this pandemic has had many obvious hardships. “I think it’s been hard on everybody. No one likes wearing masks any more than anyone else,” he said. Like most other hospitals, various non-essential services were forced to temporarily close. “We had to shut down elective surgery earlier in the year.” Th e restrictions have also extended to, and taken a toll on, patients. “It’s been hard on patients and residents. If you’re a COVID-positive patient in the hospital, we don’t allow visitors... We’re restricting visitors to other patients, so you only have one visitor a day, so I think that’s been hard.”

Of course, visitor limitations extend to residents of the Manor. “If you’re a resident and you haven’t seen your daughter, granddaughter, somebody in the manor, that’s tough, to not see them.” Th at’s not to say Memorial doesn’t try to allow visitors to those that need them most. “We’ve tried to provide opportunities for them. Virtual visits, we did some visits when the volume was down a little bit in terms of COVID cases. We would set up visits outside, and patients could visit their family members for a while...” Lambert acknowledged how harsh these guidelines can be, but expressed positivity toward the hospital and manors’ eff orts. “I think just being isolated and all the restrictions they’ve been put on, whether you’re a patient or a resident, it’s been tough. But I feel like we’ve taken good care of them, we’ve tried to overcome that as best we can with other things that we’ve done at the manor and even at the hospital to some extent.”

Now, despite the vaccine having arrived, things haven’t gone back to normal. “I think the challenge is that there’s a lot of people that don’t want to take the vaccine right now.” According to Lambert, “Probably about 50-60% of the employees don’t want to take the vaccine because they’re concerned.” But when it comes to the public, they have the opposite problem. “We’re overrun with people wanting vaccine, the problem is I don’t have enough...” In addition to the 600 doses the hospital already received, Lambert has ordered 500 more, but no defi nitive arrival date was given. “I think the vaccine hasn’t really changed anything because it’s not pervasive enough… but I think it’s given people a little hope that we’re heading toward the back end of this.”

Th at said, COVID and this past year haven’t been only negatives for Memorial. “Financially, I think there’s been some benefi ts with some of the stimulus dollars that we got,” Lambert said. “Th e rules on some of the dollars we’re getting haven’t been fi nalized, so we don’t know exactly how much of the stimulus dollars we’re gonna be able to keep as a grant, or if we’re going to have to pay it back.” In addition to receiving stimulus, the hospital has purchased a new 3-D mammography machine, with radiologist Dr. Charles Brown joining the hospital staff . Th e hospital is also looking to update their cardiac nuclear medicine. “Our nuclear medicine camera is fairly old, and we hope to replace that so we can maybe do some cardiac ultrasound, nuclear medicine studies as well… We’re always looking to grow and provide service to the community.”

Lambert also sees responding to the pandemic as a way for Memorial to improve their relationship with the community. “I think there’s plenty that we can do to take care of the patients that think they have to leave and go someplace else, either because they don’t trust us, or they had a bad experience, or they don’t like the billing process. So, we’ve got to get the confi dence in the community, and I think COVID has kind of helped us.”

Despite a tumultuous year, Memorial Hospital and Manor is working to serve the people of Bainbridge. From providing vaccines, to upgrading equipment and off ering new services, they are working toward giving people quality care options for years to come.

Becky Bardin A BOARD OF VISIONARIES: The Memorial Hospital and Manor Board stands proudly in front of the hospital after a year of unprecedented patient check-ins and vaccinations.

Winter 2022 / BAINBRIDGE LIVING 21