Cases of influenza are on the increase in this area, but Jami White has seen worse.
White, who is director of infection control at Newman Regional Health, said that the hospital had less than 10 cases currently admitted as of early afternoon on Tuesday.
“But we see more than that through the emergency room that don’t have the severity of illness to be admitted,” White said. “They can go home with rest and rehydration and Tylenol and they’re able to survive at home.”
People who cannot maintain hydration or control fever, or who have developed a secondary bacterial infection like pneumonia, may need to be admitted, she said. Others who are debilitated and not able to take care of themselves also are candidates for hospital care.
The hospital is not transferring cardiac patients to out-of-town hospitals to keep them away from influenza patients. Cardiac patients often are transferred as a matter of course to place them in close proximity to cardiologists.
“We’re not on bypass, all those things you hear about from big facilities,” she said. “... We’ve not transferred anybody out of town to make room for influenza patients.”
White said that Newman has a plan that has been put into action many times during community-wide outbreaks of viral illnesses such as influenza.
People who come into the emergency room are tested to determine the type of influenza present before they are admitted and taken upstairs for treatment.
“Luckily, we just opened a new wing of private rooms,” she said. “Anybody who we suspect has influenza goes into a private room unless we have two patients that have the same type, like Influenza A, and come from the same long-term care facility. Then we might room them together.”
The hospital staff also is using rooms that are “a little bit further beyond nurses’ convenience,” White said. “We have used those rooms a couple of times in the past few weeks. ... We keep them on standby.”
The goal is to put each influenza patient into a private room if at all possible.
“It’s just not always possible when the census is high,” she said.
Newman keeps the influenza patients away from the fourth floor, where newborns and their mothers are housed.
“The only exception is if we have a lady come in to deliver with influenza,” White said.
That mother would be taken to an isolation precautions room to avoid exposing other mothers and babies.
White encouraged anyone with symptoms of respiratory ailments associated with flu to stay home from work and school and not to visit patients in hospitals. Use soap and water or alcohol gel to wash hands frequently and wear a mask over the mouth when tending family members or friends who have influenza.
“We try to keep the public healthy by eliminating exposure,” White said.
In the interim, she is expecting the number of flu cases to continue to rise a bit.
“This is not unusual at all to be going into March with a peak,” she said.