Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health is preparing to resume time-sensitive elective surgeries and procedures and ambulatory visits within the next two weeks.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock announced a reduction in non-urgent surgeries and procedures in late March due to concern about the lack of personal protective equipment and other supplies. Many of those procedures and appointments are now being rescheduled, the organization said in a statement.
“Since the beginning of this pandemic, our primary focus has been the health and safety of our patients and our staff,” Chief Clinical Officer Edward J. Merrens said. “Over the past month, we put a number of important measures in place to assure and monitor our critical equipment, supplies and medications, as well as to maintain patient and staff safety. Those measures, along with the common sense guidelines of social distancing, washing hands, and staying home if sick, have paid off tremendously, and we’re confident that we’re ready to resume the appointments that we had temporarily postponed.”
Covid-19 cases around the region appear to be plateauing, and current projections show that any surge that may come will be below levels originally forecast, the organization said.
“When we made the decision to postpone some non-urgent procedures a month ago, we knew there would be a highly significant financial impact on our entire system,” Chief Operating Officer Patrick F. Jordan III said. “That has played out pretty much as we expected, but the resumption of time-sensitive, urgent elective cases is a key piece of our recovery plan to return to even better financial footing.”
— Sarah Asch
