Salinas Valley limits visitations as COVID-19 cases rise
SALINAS, Calif. (KION) Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System is reestablishing a visitation policy to help protect patients, families, and staff, only allowing one adult visitor per patient between 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. However, end-of-life care and other limited circumstances based on medical approval are exempt.
SMMHS's Chief Nursing Officer Lisa Paulo said, “It's about the safety of the people who trust us to come here and receive their care. We want to make sure that if you come here, you know we're taking every action
to ensure your safety and that you’re always going to receive quality care from us.”
Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital currently has seven patients with COVID-19, including one on a ventilator. The hospital said it's restocking its emergency department triage tent and opening the large isolation tent outside the Emergency Room which was used at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.
“This is a time that we will again need to do what we did so well during the past surges,” Pete Delgado, President/CEO Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System wrote in a memo to its staff. “Be there for each other to offer support and remain healthy to serve our patients and the community. We also need to be diligent about following all masking and social distancing guidelines, and we must encourage everyone we know to get vaccinated.”
According to a press release, SVMHS has handled more than 1,100 COVID-19 in the last year and a half. This is the first surge in COVID-19 since vaccines became available to the public.
“Critically, while the vaccines are not 100% protective, those vaccinated who become infected have milder illnesses,” said Dr. Radner. “Greater than 90% of the country’s current hospitalizations and deaths have occurred in unvaccinated individuals. Overwhelmingly, in our county, current COVID-19 hospitalizations are occurring in the unvaccinated. Without control of the virus – best achieved by vaccination – we can expect to continue to see social, economic and educational disruptions.”
