News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Livingston Regional Hospital has enough beds to handle a COVID surge. Director of Physician Relations David Cox said the hospital manages the situation constantly.
“We have a daily meeting where we review how many beds we have available for COVID positive patients,” Cox said. “We monitor that daily, and we do have beds available.”
Livingston Regional keeps its COVID patients in a isolated wing with negative pressure. Cox said the hospital is currently not overwhelmed by the number of COVID positive patients coming into the emergency room.
“A lot of those patients will be directed as they need to be by the ER physician whenever they come in,” Cox said. “If they are admitted to the hospital, our hospitalist team has a great practice of handling our COVID patients.”
Livingston Regional will not release the number of COVID patients or available beds in the hospital. The hospital also has open beds in its ICU and regular rooms. All elective surgeries are happening.
“We have opened back up with our orthopedic surgery cases,” Cox said. “We are now back to doing knee replacements, hip replacements. Any type of trigger finger or carpal tunnel cases that need to be done for it.”
All surgery patients must pass a screening test before operations begin. Patients are still only allowed one visitor per day and are required to bring their own mask. Cox said the hospital is trying to conserve its personal protection gear.
