14 Pullman Community Update
PULLMAN REGIONAL HOSPITAL
Jeff Elbracht is the president of the Pullman Regional Hospital Board of Commissioners, a seven-member elected board charged with overseeing the public district hospital. This column ran in the Daily News in August and was written on behalf of the Board of Commissioners.
Hope over fear: Keeping local healthcare strong in times of a pandemic Pullman Regional Hospital recently launched a short video from our medical community called “Hope over fear.” It is provided as a message of hope grounded in the reality we are facing today. In the midst of financial uncertainty due to lower volumes that we have been experiencing, the medical community and Pullman Regional Hospital continue to provide excellent healthcare. We are facing this challenging environment head on with creativity and innovation, using science and data as key drivers of decision making and providing the highest levels of safety and care for our patients and staff. The hospital and our clinics are safe places to receive care. We want to stress how important it is that you not delay your care. We follow the CDC guidelines and screen all patients and visitors who come to our facilities. We have a universal masking policy and restricted visiting hours. We have also limited the number of people in the hospital through the temporary closure of the Red Sage Café and our volunteer program. We have always been attentive to the cleanliness of our facility and clinics but are now implementing even more frequent cleaning and sanitizing. Our testing capacity remains strong and we have the necessary trained staff and personal protective equipment to take care of COVID-19 positive patients. We continue to provide telehealth as an alternative to in person appointments when appropriate and participate in the lobbying of insurance companies to reimburse providers at the same rate as in person visits. We have qualified for and received COVID-19 governmental financial aid to help offset some of the financial impact to our hospital. Additionally, we have been proactive in protecting our financial wellbeing through furloughs, expense reductions and a 60 day pay-cut for all staff implemented in April and May. We remain committed to the goal of no-layoffs. We are actively fundraising to support the COVID-19 Emergency Fund for equipment, supplies and staff during the pandemic. Please go to www.pullmanregional.org if you would like to donate. We are grateful to this community for its support of Pullman Regional Hospital and our healthcare community. We believe that with your ongoing support and the dedicated medical staff we have, we will come out the other end of this stronger and even better.
SEPTEMBER 2020
