Selected Podcast
Our ER is Open for Medical Emergencies During COVID-19
Jacquelyn Horton RN, Director of the Emergency Department shares TVH ER is open for medical (non-COVID-19 related) emergencies during the pandemic.
Featured Speaker:
Jacquelyn Horton, RN
Jacquelyn Horton RN, is the Director of the Emergency Department. Transcription:
Our ER is Open for Medical Emergencies During COVID-19
Melanie Cole (Host): This is the Temecula Valley Hospital Podcast on COVID-19 dated April 23, 2020.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented time among our communities and in our healthcare system. It has led to extreme yet critical measures such as social distancing, and Safer at Home in the hopes of keeping as many people safe and healthy as possible. Temecula Valley Hospital and the Emergency Providers of Emergent Medical Associates want to remind the community that our Emergency Department is open for medical emergencies including support for heart and brain procedures relating to heart attacks, stroke and more. This is TVH Health Chat with Temecula Valley Hospital. I’m Melanie Cole. And today, we’re discussing how the ER is open for medical emergencies during COVID-19. Joining me is Jacquelyn Horton. She’s the Director of the Emergency Department of Temecula Valley Hospital. Jacquelyn, it’s an honor and a pleasure to have you join us today. tell us what’s happening with the ER at Temecula Valley Hospital at this time.
Jacquelyn Horton, RN, Director of Emergency Department (Guest): Hi, well thank you for having me. We are seeing patients here. We’re open for business. We’ve done all the safety requirements needed to protect patients from any communicable disease which we’ve always done. We just are not seeing a lot of patients coming in as they should. Which is concerning to us here. Patients are waiting at home because they are afraid to come in. So, sometimes they’ll come in and they’ve been sitting at home with stroke symptoms for two or three days. And as you know, things like that, they require early treatment for the best outcomes. So, that was why we thought it was important to remind the community that we have all the protective equipment that we need. We don’t have a short supply here. We have taken all the measures required to keep people safe and we want people to make sure that they feel comfortable coming in.
Host: Well thank you for saying that and as you are talking about what you’re noticing, about people waiting too long to come in because they are afraid; at this time, we’re told to socially isolate and social distancing. What about the difference? Tell us the difference between home isolation and medical isolation. People hear these terms; they don’t know what the difference is.
Jacquelyn: Well what we don’t want people doing is unnecessary socializing where you are risking spreading the disease. Now when you need help, even if it’s abdominal pain or something you’re suffering at home with; the intention was never to stay at home and isolate for those types of things. And that’s why we prepared ourselves months in advance when we knew that this disease was coming; we did the things that we knew would help keep people safe when they still needed to come to the hospital. But I think that people misunderstand and think that they’re supposed to be staying at home and not going to the hospitals and that’s only supposed to be reserved for people who have COVID or are very, very ill and it’s really not the case. You can have an abdominal pain situation that turns into something emergent because you didn’t take care of it early enough.
So, it was never the intention for people to sit home and suffer wondering if they had an emergent condition or not.
Host: Well then tell us some of the symptoms. You just mentioned abdominal pain and you’re mentioned briefly stroke. Tell us some of the red flags that would be an indicator of a medical emergency that you want people to be aware of and thereby call 9-1-1 and come to the emergency room.
Jacquelyn: Yeah, sure. So any injuries also what we’re noticing, people, they might fall and break a bone and they are afraid to come in. I mean things like that. Those are also things that require emergency attention. Even a bad cut or a wound that needs cleaned. You might need antibiotics. You might need stitches. Those things are still procedures that are required, and patients are staying at home with those things as well. So, any injuries. People not being able to eat because they don’t feel well or drink. Those kinds of things can cause a patient to be dehydrated. So, they still need to come in for those types of things. Any kind of pain that is not manageable with simple pain medications. Any types of chest pain obviously. Any types of breathing problems.
Things like that need to be addressed right away. Stroke and heart attack, they have various symptoms. Significant weakness, that’s also something that people are staying home with that they probably need to come and be treated for. Any weakness on one side or the other. People feeling that pain that radiates down their arm or into their jaw, those kinds of things also need to be treated right away. And it’s safe here. We have the right areas to keep people safe and not exposed to other people, all of the separation, six feet apart, everybody is masked, all those things that we need to do to make sure that the area is very, very clean and people – we can’t cross contaminate.
We’ve taken all those measures so, the staff here feels super safe and nobody has been nervous about coming to work and I just wish that the patients would know that it’s a safe place to be and please don’t suffer at home in pain or with a concern that you feel like maybe you should go in but you’re not sure. We’re happy to see everybody still the same way that we did before.
Host: Well thank you for saying that and reassuring the public. So, tell us a little bit about your process. You mentioned that you feel safe and your staff feels safe which is wonderful to hear. For the patients that are afraid, what are you doing to protect them during medical emergencies? Tell them what you want them to know about your safe procedures and the protocols and the areas for medical emergency patients. How are you set up for this?
Jacquelyn: So, what we do is either by ambulance or if somebody walks into the department; we are screening everybody at the door. So, nobody comes in to any area of the hospital without be3ing screened for questions relating to COVID. Every patient gets masked. So, anywhere you are in the ER, every single patient will have a mask on, every single staff person has a mask on. That way we’re not contaminating each other. We have a separate area if you have any symptoms or concern about having COVID or another infectious disease. You go to a different area of the hospital. If you are walking around talking and fine, we take you to one area that the entrance is from outside. We have all the staff in the appropriate protective equipment. We have the doctor look at the patient. We have – we are able to test patients for COVID if needed. And those patients get treated in a separate area.
Now if the patients are too ill for that, and maybe they come by ambulance or they’ve come in from home and they are too ill to walk to that area and they need to be taken back to a room where they lay down for further evaluation. That is a separate entrance. They are also masked. They get taken back to a separate area of the ER that is away from the other patients. It’s a completely closed off area where they are seen and taken care of in that area. And then if they are admitted to the hospital, they go up a separate route up to an area of the hospital that has been completely sectioned off from the rest of the hospital with the staff wearing the appropriate gear so that we don’t have to worry about exposing anybody.
So, it’s actually super safe here and we’ve created different areas for patients that we think could possibly have COVID to keep them safe and to keep the staff and other patients safe.
Host: That is so reassuring Jacquelyn. Before we wrap up, if they have a cough and you mentioned if they have trouble breathing or if they have chest pains or stroke symptoms, any of these kinds of things that we know are emergent, what if they have a cough or flu like symptoms or a high fever? When if they think they have COVID do they call 9-1-1 or come to see you?
Jacquelyn: I think when they’re feeling short of breath absolutely come. Call 9-1-1 or get here as soon as you can. Because we want to evaluate that, and people can deteriorate quickly and let us take a look and make sure that you’re safe to be at home. We don’t want someone sitting around waiting too long because shortness of breath can progress fairly quickly. So, I would say if just have a little cough and a fever, and you feel fine to stay at home; then yes, you self-isolate and you stay at home. But if there’s a question about if you’re too sick to be at home, if you’re too sick to eat or drink properly, those kinds of things, if you are too weak to take care of yourself; we want you to come here, we want to take care of you and get you feeling better.
Host: And then wrap it up for us with your best advice about the Emergency Room at Temecula Valley Hospital and what you want really the community to know about your readiness, your preparedness and that you’re there for emergencies should they need them.
Jacquelyn: What I think I would like people to know is as an Emergency Room, this is what we do. We’re ready for things like this all the time. And maybe they’re hearing about COVID and they’re hearing about infectious diseases, but we have always dealt with these. We dealt with H1N1. We dealt with Ebola. We always have been prepared. We have preparedness plans and we drill for things like this year round. So, this is not something new for us. We’re ready to take care of patients as we have always been. So, I want them to realize that this is a hospital that is ready for anything that comes whether it’s a disaster, whether it’s a pandemic or whether it’s a regular broken bone in the ER. This is what we do. Emergency Rooms are supposed to be prepared for all types of emergencies at all times.
So, we’re ready for them to come. We don’t want people sitting at home getting sicker or missing an opportunity to come and get taken care of promptly as they should. And I think that’s just what I want them to know that we’re hear like we’ve always been, and we’ve always been ready. And yes, we took extra precautions for this because yes, we’re learning more about it all the time. But we’ve always had preparedness for these types of things in our plans. So, it’s not a new thing for us to be ready for these patients.
Host: Thank you so much Jacquelyn for coming on with us today and thank you for all of the great work that you and your staff are doing to keep the community safe. If you’re having a medical emergency, or if you’re having symptoms that could possibly be an indicator of a medical emergency, such as chest pain, difficulty breathing, trouble lifting your arms and weakness; symptoms that might indicate a heart attack of stroke; please don’t hesitate to call 9-1-1. Temecula Valley Hospital Emergency Room Department is here for you. For more information on COVID-19 including symptoms, prevention and hospital services and programs please visit www.temeculavalleyhospital.com. That concludes this episode of TVH Health Chat. Please remember to subscribe, rate and review this podcast and all the other Temecula Valley Hospital podcasts. Also, share this show with your friends and family on social media so that they can see what Temecula Valley Hospital is doing to keep the community safe. I’m Melanie Cole.
Our ER is Open for Medical Emergencies During COVID-19
Melanie Cole (Host): This is the Temecula Valley Hospital Podcast on COVID-19 dated April 23, 2020.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented time among our communities and in our healthcare system. It has led to extreme yet critical measures such as social distancing, and Safer at Home in the hopes of keeping as many people safe and healthy as possible. Temecula Valley Hospital and the Emergency Providers of Emergent Medical Associates want to remind the community that our Emergency Department is open for medical emergencies including support for heart and brain procedures relating to heart attacks, stroke and more. This is TVH Health Chat with Temecula Valley Hospital. I’m Melanie Cole. And today, we’re discussing how the ER is open for medical emergencies during COVID-19. Joining me is Jacquelyn Horton. She’s the Director of the Emergency Department of Temecula Valley Hospital. Jacquelyn, it’s an honor and a pleasure to have you join us today. tell us what’s happening with the ER at Temecula Valley Hospital at this time.
Jacquelyn Horton, RN, Director of Emergency Department (Guest): Hi, well thank you for having me. We are seeing patients here. We’re open for business. We’ve done all the safety requirements needed to protect patients from any communicable disease which we’ve always done. We just are not seeing a lot of patients coming in as they should. Which is concerning to us here. Patients are waiting at home because they are afraid to come in. So, sometimes they’ll come in and they’ve been sitting at home with stroke symptoms for two or three days. And as you know, things like that, they require early treatment for the best outcomes. So, that was why we thought it was important to remind the community that we have all the protective equipment that we need. We don’t have a short supply here. We have taken all the measures required to keep people safe and we want people to make sure that they feel comfortable coming in.
Host: Well thank you for saying that and as you are talking about what you’re noticing, about people waiting too long to come in because they are afraid; at this time, we’re told to socially isolate and social distancing. What about the difference? Tell us the difference between home isolation and medical isolation. People hear these terms; they don’t know what the difference is.
Jacquelyn: Well what we don’t want people doing is unnecessary socializing where you are risking spreading the disease. Now when you need help, even if it’s abdominal pain or something you’re suffering at home with; the intention was never to stay at home and isolate for those types of things. And that’s why we prepared ourselves months in advance when we knew that this disease was coming; we did the things that we knew would help keep people safe when they still needed to come to the hospital. But I think that people misunderstand and think that they’re supposed to be staying at home and not going to the hospitals and that’s only supposed to be reserved for people who have COVID or are very, very ill and it’s really not the case. You can have an abdominal pain situation that turns into something emergent because you didn’t take care of it early enough.
So, it was never the intention for people to sit home and suffer wondering if they had an emergent condition or not.
Host: Well then tell us some of the symptoms. You just mentioned abdominal pain and you’re mentioned briefly stroke. Tell us some of the red flags that would be an indicator of a medical emergency that you want people to be aware of and thereby call 9-1-1 and come to the emergency room.
Jacquelyn: Yeah, sure. So any injuries also what we’re noticing, people, they might fall and break a bone and they are afraid to come in. I mean things like that. Those are also things that require emergency attention. Even a bad cut or a wound that needs cleaned. You might need antibiotics. You might need stitches. Those things are still procedures that are required, and patients are staying at home with those things as well. So, any injuries. People not being able to eat because they don’t feel well or drink. Those kinds of things can cause a patient to be dehydrated. So, they still need to come in for those types of things. Any kind of pain that is not manageable with simple pain medications. Any types of chest pain obviously. Any types of breathing problems.
Things like that need to be addressed right away. Stroke and heart attack, they have various symptoms. Significant weakness, that’s also something that people are staying home with that they probably need to come and be treated for. Any weakness on one side or the other. People feeling that pain that radiates down their arm or into their jaw, those kinds of things also need to be treated right away. And it’s safe here. We have the right areas to keep people safe and not exposed to other people, all of the separation, six feet apart, everybody is masked, all those things that we need to do to make sure that the area is very, very clean and people – we can’t cross contaminate.
We’ve taken all those measures so, the staff here feels super safe and nobody has been nervous about coming to work and I just wish that the patients would know that it’s a safe place to be and please don’t suffer at home in pain or with a concern that you feel like maybe you should go in but you’re not sure. We’re happy to see everybody still the same way that we did before.
Host: Well thank you for saying that and reassuring the public. So, tell us a little bit about your process. You mentioned that you feel safe and your staff feels safe which is wonderful to hear. For the patients that are afraid, what are you doing to protect them during medical emergencies? Tell them what you want them to know about your safe procedures and the protocols and the areas for medical emergency patients. How are you set up for this?
Jacquelyn: So, what we do is either by ambulance or if somebody walks into the department; we are screening everybody at the door. So, nobody comes in to any area of the hospital without be3ing screened for questions relating to COVID. Every patient gets masked. So, anywhere you are in the ER, every single patient will have a mask on, every single staff person has a mask on. That way we’re not contaminating each other. We have a separate area if you have any symptoms or concern about having COVID or another infectious disease. You go to a different area of the hospital. If you are walking around talking and fine, we take you to one area that the entrance is from outside. We have all the staff in the appropriate protective equipment. We have the doctor look at the patient. We have – we are able to test patients for COVID if needed. And those patients get treated in a separate area.
Now if the patients are too ill for that, and maybe they come by ambulance or they’ve come in from home and they are too ill to walk to that area and they need to be taken back to a room where they lay down for further evaluation. That is a separate entrance. They are also masked. They get taken back to a separate area of the ER that is away from the other patients. It’s a completely closed off area where they are seen and taken care of in that area. And then if they are admitted to the hospital, they go up a separate route up to an area of the hospital that has been completely sectioned off from the rest of the hospital with the staff wearing the appropriate gear so that we don’t have to worry about exposing anybody.
So, it’s actually super safe here and we’ve created different areas for patients that we think could possibly have COVID to keep them safe and to keep the staff and other patients safe.
Host: That is so reassuring Jacquelyn. Before we wrap up, if they have a cough and you mentioned if they have trouble breathing or if they have chest pains or stroke symptoms, any of these kinds of things that we know are emergent, what if they have a cough or flu like symptoms or a high fever? When if they think they have COVID do they call 9-1-1 or come to see you?
Jacquelyn: I think when they’re feeling short of breath absolutely come. Call 9-1-1 or get here as soon as you can. Because we want to evaluate that, and people can deteriorate quickly and let us take a look and make sure that you’re safe to be at home. We don’t want someone sitting around waiting too long because shortness of breath can progress fairly quickly. So, I would say if just have a little cough and a fever, and you feel fine to stay at home; then yes, you self-isolate and you stay at home. But if there’s a question about if you’re too sick to be at home, if you’re too sick to eat or drink properly, those kinds of things, if you are too weak to take care of yourself; we want you to come here, we want to take care of you and get you feeling better.
Host: And then wrap it up for us with your best advice about the Emergency Room at Temecula Valley Hospital and what you want really the community to know about your readiness, your preparedness and that you’re there for emergencies should they need them.
Jacquelyn: What I think I would like people to know is as an Emergency Room, this is what we do. We’re ready for things like this all the time. And maybe they’re hearing about COVID and they’re hearing about infectious diseases, but we have always dealt with these. We dealt with H1N1. We dealt with Ebola. We always have been prepared. We have preparedness plans and we drill for things like this year round. So, this is not something new for us. We’re ready to take care of patients as we have always been. So, I want them to realize that this is a hospital that is ready for anything that comes whether it’s a disaster, whether it’s a pandemic or whether it’s a regular broken bone in the ER. This is what we do. Emergency Rooms are supposed to be prepared for all types of emergencies at all times.
So, we’re ready for them to come. We don’t want people sitting at home getting sicker or missing an opportunity to come and get taken care of promptly as they should. And I think that’s just what I want them to know that we’re hear like we’ve always been, and we’ve always been ready. And yes, we took extra precautions for this because yes, we’re learning more about it all the time. But we’ve always had preparedness for these types of things in our plans. So, it’s not a new thing for us to be ready for these patients.
Host: Thank you so much Jacquelyn for coming on with us today and thank you for all of the great work that you and your staff are doing to keep the community safe. If you’re having a medical emergency, or if you’re having symptoms that could possibly be an indicator of a medical emergency, such as chest pain, difficulty breathing, trouble lifting your arms and weakness; symptoms that might indicate a heart attack of stroke; please don’t hesitate to call 9-1-1. Temecula Valley Hospital Emergency Room Department is here for you. For more information on COVID-19 including symptoms, prevention and hospital services and programs please visit www.temeculavalleyhospital.com. That concludes this episode of TVH Health Chat. Please remember to subscribe, rate and review this podcast and all the other Temecula Valley Hospital podcasts. Also, share this show with your friends and family on social media so that they can see what Temecula Valley Hospital is doing to keep the community safe. I’m Melanie Cole.