Thursday, October 21, 2021
San Juan Regional Medical Center Responds to New State Public Health Order
San Juan Regional Medical Center wants to update our community following the State of New Mexico’s announcement recognizing conditions that may require hospitals to implement crisis-level standards of care. Hospitals across the state, including our community owned and operated hospital here in the Four Corners, are continuing to feel the long-term effects of the pandemic. High demand for care, both from COVID and non-COVID patients, coupled with limited resources across the state, have put a strain on the healthcare system as well as our caregivers.
The order provides flexibility to each hospital in the state to implement Crisis Standards of Care. If and when San Juan Regional Medical Center deems this appropriate, we will activate a triage board, a group of physicians uniquely credentialed by the state, to guide us in our decision making using a standardized and equitable procedure. It is a structured, organized approach to determine how we may change the care we provide in certain areas.
As good stewards of our resources, San Juan Regional Medical Center always considers the supply, demand and available resources to provide the best care we can for our community. This is nothing new. What is new is the severity of the statewide and nationwide problems of healthcare workforce challenges and the consistently high occupancy of ICU beds across the state. Under Crisis Standards of Care, hospitals may use ethically sound, standardized procedures for deciding how to allocate scarce resources. The declaration also provides some degree of liability protections for caregivers tasked with making these decisions. Despite these challenges, SJRMC continues to make ongoing efforts to support inpatient and outpatient care as well as and ancillary services for both COVID and non-COVID patients.
“If you need to come to the hospital for care, please continue to do so. Do not make crucial decisions about your own health without seeking out medical care first. Delaying your care can have serious, and even deadly, consequences,” said Dr. Brad Greenberg, Emergency Medicine Physician and Director of Emergency Preparedness for San Juan Regional Medical Center.
Our situation is similar to what most hospitals across the state are experiencing. We are all fatigued physically, mentally and emotionally and doing the best we can with the limited resources we have. Our ICU bed capacity is full. We have worked hard to create additional ICU capacity throughout the pandemic, but it’s not just about the number of beds available. We also need enough caregivers to provide care for all the patients we are privileged to serve.
“The dedicated workforce we have today has decreased since the start of the pandemic. Our caregivers are extremely tired from working to keep up with heavy patient loads and extremely sick patients. They have seen things they never thought they would see, and it has taken a toll,” said Jeff Bourgeois, President and CEO of San Juan Regional Medical Center. “That’s why the support of our community has been, and continues to be, crucial to our success.”
With our test positivity rate hovering around 17 percent, we expect to be busy, or busier, throughout this month and into November with COVID-19 admissions. Our community can help reduce the burden on our healthcare system by taking steps to avoid hospitalization. The best way to prevent contracting the disease, prevent hospitalization, prevent an ICU admission and ultimately prevent mortality related to COVID-19 is to seek a vaccination. In addition, it is critical that all persons revisit disciplined handwashing, social distancing, and mask-wearing.
“As the situation continues to evolve, we ask that unvaccinated individuals recognize and support our caregivers and strongly consider getting the COVID-19 vaccine,” said Bourgeois. “Our Incident Command team has been working to guide us through our current situation in a pre-planned and structured manner since before the pandemic even hit the United States and we will continue to do all we can to secure a safe environment of care to help us get back to normal.”