Dr. Courtney Wilson

Dr. Courtney Wilson of Asante talks about the need to not fear COVID-19 should they need to go to an emergency room.

With brian morton, alicia rubin, chief meteorologist matt hoffman, and sports with josh shelton."

Right now, people with underlying health conditions may be avoiding the emergency room out of fear of contracting.

The coronavivivivivi that will saute wants people to know that the emergency room is safe and it's open.

We're joined tonight by dr courtney wilson, the emergency services medical director at asante rogue regional medical center.

Thanks so much for being with us, dr. thank you for having me.

So i'm still going to assume that you don't want the emergency room to be someone's first line of medical contact if they're sick.

Is that correct?

Right?

Um, i think that everybody has to decide for themselves if they're experiencing a medical emergency.

And, um, so we want everyone to know that we are open and available if you think that you're having an emergency.

Um, but as a community, we have done a lot, and particularly a santee has done a lot to create alternatives.

Access points to the emergency department.

If you think you may need to see a doctor but you don't have an emergency, we do want you to try and utilize some of those alternatives, specifically tele-health or urgent care.

Um, but on the contrary, if you are afraid you might be experiencing an emergency, then we definitely want you to come and see us were open and ready to see you in a very safe way.

I will just take a moment to mention that we have worked hard to separate.

Our emergency department into separate zones, so to speak.

So we have one area of the emergency department that is specifically for patients who we think could have cobot infection and then a whole separate area of the emergency department that we've reserved for people who we think probably don't have that infection.

So we really want everyone to know that we're trying to make everything as safe as possible for you.

And don't delay care if you think you could be experiencing an emergency.

For all those of us who's experienced in the emergency room.

It doesn't go past televisions and movies.

It looks as if you folks tend to work in a pretty tight environment.

Has that actually changed how you physically do your job?

You'd mentioned the separation, but when you're actually working on a patient, how does that change.

Uh, yeah, there are some things that we've done to change, uh, to change things.

Um, we have implemented televisits within the emergency department for patients who we think could have covet infection.

Um, we will see them initially with all of our appropriate masks.

And gallons and things.

And then if there are just quick updates and things that we need to tell the patient, or if the patient has a question, we are actually able to beam in a sort of like i'm doing right now with the computer to talk face to face without our mask on, which, um, has actually been helpful in some cases.

Uh, so that's one change we've made for taking care of patients who we think could have cobin infection for those who.

We are not concerned about code infection.

Um, there hasn't been too much change to the care that we provide.

Uh, you may be aware that we have limited the number of visitors that are allowed to come into the emergency department and the hospital in general.

So i know that that is impacting our patients and, uh, we are sorry about that, but it's really for the health and safety of everyone.

So those i would think are the main kind of changes that we've made, um, to patient care.

I know you and your staff have experienced perhaps a surge they have in new york city and other places, but can you explain what it's like to know that the next person who comes with that door could put your health at risk and how that impacts you and your staff?

Well, i think that, um, we are very fortunate to be in an area of the country that has a low incidence.

And again, we're very grateful to our whole community for doing a really good job of helping us flatten the curve and, um, helping our health system to be prepared to take care of people.

So, um, there's no doubt that, i think we've.

We are at less risk than some of our colleagues in places that are harder hit.

And so there's some comfort in that.

But i think that we all come to work everyday to take care of patients and we've been really grateful to have enough personal protective equipment that we can keep ourselves safe.

So, um, we're, i think we're all in the emergency department feeling in our, that we're in a very good place right now.

Very prepared, very comfortable, very capable of taking care of patients when they arrive.

Dr courtney wilson from asante.

We appreciate you making time for us and good to hear that you and your staff feel as safe as anyone can feel given the circumstances we're all in today.