'It's right here'

"What you're reading and hearing on the news, it's right here," said Share Medical Center CEO Kandice Allen. She was speaking during the special Alva Hospital Authority meeting held Wednesday at the hospital.

At that time, the hospital had eight, or actually nine, patients in the hospital. Six were Covid-19 cases. That ninth patient was actually in the emergency room where he had been held for the last 24 hours. He needed a higher level of care, but so far the hospital had been unable to find a bed in a facility that could give him that care.

"I can't express enough encouraging people in our community to wear their masks, wash their hands, social distance and not to stay in large gatherings," said Allen. "We've got to respect that and bring these numbers down. It's real, guys!

"We've got to wear a mask and do all the things we know that help bring the numbers down. So please encourage the others around you to do the same."

Looking around the room at all the attendees wearing facemasks, Allen said, "Our staff's tired. It gets old. You can imagine, just sitting here, I know you don't like to wear your mask, and I appreciate you doing that. But you know, you're trying to start IVs and deal with that and your glasses are fogging up and you've got a plastic or paper gown on and all that stuff to do what you have to do, that gets tiring. It gets old."

She said the hospital has been doing some things to keep up morale and recognize all their staff. Pizza, cookies and soft drinks were among the treats mentioned. "It's not just nursing staff that's affected. It affects everybody. So we're trying to feed them and give them pats on their back and let them know we recognize what they are going through, and we appreciate them," she said.

In a move to separate healthy patients from sick patients, Allen said the hospital has set up a separate registration area at the lab. "The sick patients walk through the front door and register there for urgent care. The people just needing x-rays and lab tests, they go to the lab door and they get registered there," she said. "That seems to be working okay. It's not ideal. I understand that, but that's really a better option than locking the front door like we did the first time."

The hospital has been relying some on agency nursing staff because more staffing is needed to deal with the Covid patients.

New Ultraviolet Cleaning System

Allen pointed out a tall machine with glowing vertical tubes located in the corner of the meeting room. She asked CFO Chris Lauderdale to explain how the new ultraviolet cleaning system works.

"We just got this in a couple of days ago. Basically what this does is it can go into any room in the hospital, and it puts out an ultraviolet light that will kill any mold, bacteria, the coronavirus ... anything that's sitting out there whether it's on the furniture, walls, the air," he said.

The machine is programmed through use of an iPad. Each room of the hospital is listed in the program. "You put it in a room and say what room it is with the iPad. You close the door," said Lauderdale. "There are four sensors you set in the room in the farthest corners or any area where it will have the hardest time getting to. These sensors are talking back to the iPad saying this is how much ultraviolet light has hit that sensor. When it gets to, I think, 46,000 units then it's complete."

He said if not all the sensors have reached the trigger value, the machine can be repositioned to reach those areas. "It basically cleans everything in the room. It has motion sensors so if anybody opens the door, it automatically shuts off. That ultraviolet light, especially this powerful, isn't good to be around. Also you have to take all plants out. It will kill the plants," he said.

Lauderdale said they tried out the machine in a few rooms the last couple of days and are "starting to get the hang of it."

"So the minute somebody comes into a room, especially if they have Covid, you can wheel this machine in, put the sensors out around it. It takes roughly 10 to 15 minutes to completely clean a room. You put it in there, put a sign on the door and continue with other cleaning. Check the iPad and when it says it's done, take it out and put it in another room," he said. "You know when you bring somebody back into one of those rooms, it's for sure clean."

Allen said, "Speaking of air, we do have several units that we were able to deploy to urgent care and ER, we can take them to the floor as well." These six to eight units are for continuous cleaning of the air and killing any bacteria or virus in the air.

Rural Health Clinic Certification

Allen said the Share Medical Center clinics have completed all the requirements to be certified as rural health clinics (RHC). An RHC is a clinic located in a rural, medically under-served area in the U.S. that has a separate reimbursement structure from the standard medical office under the Medicare and Medicaid program. The certification has not yet been recognized by CMS (Medicare) so the hospital is waiting on that to proceed.

Madrid in Galbraith's Clinic, Freedom Clinic

Allen reported that Steve Madrid, PA, is now seeing patients in Dr. Galbraith's clinic in the Professional Building in Alva. Madrid has also held three weekly clinics in Freedom.