How OhioHealth Hardin Memorial Hospital is Keeping Their Patients Safe

Kenton, Ohio – OhioHealth Hardin Memorial Hospital takes great pride in serving the residents of Hardin and surrounding counties. With the risk of COVID-19 still a part of our lives, we want to ensure our community that the safety of our patients and associates are our top priority.

As we continue to open our services, including outpatient elective surgeries, procedures, wellness and portions of in-office care, we want to ensure you that extra safety measures have been put in place to protect our patients, associates, and physicians.

When coming to the hospital, we want to be sure our patients feel comfortable with the care they are getting that is why your experience may be a little different than a few months ago. Signage is located at the entrances asking that you wait to enter until you are greeted by an associate. The associate will provide you with a hospital-grade mask, take your temperature and ask a few screening questions. After you have been screened and approved you will be directed into the hospital.

Visually the lobby and waiting areas may look slightly different as we have reconfigured the furniture to allow us to adhere to the six foot social distancing guidelines. You may also see decals and other reminders on floors, chairs, tables and displays throughout our facilities as a reminder of social distancing. A few other safety measures that is in place includes:

.Daily health screening of associates, including temperature monitoring.

.Using hospital-grade personal protective equipment (PPE) that is appropriate for each associate’s role.

.Requiring all associates and providers to wear masks.

.Providing masks for patients and approved visitors.

.Rigorously enforcing hand-washing protocols.

.Reviewing all clinical and operational processes with a team of certified infection prevention specialists to ensure the highest level of safety.

.Cleaning our facilities and medical devices with hospital-grade products approved by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to kill the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

.Developing innovative ways to limit in-person contact, such as moving monitoring equipment out of patients’ rooms to preserve PPE, and using phone and video interactions, when appropriate.

During your visit and as much as possible, your provider and other OhioHealth associates will keep six feet between you. For some procedures, this isn’t possible. In those cases, a plastic or plexiglass barrier may be in use to separate you from your care team.

In situations that don’t allow for social distancing, your care team will work as quickly as possible to limit close contact. Rest assured, we’re constantly monitoring the well-being of our associates and will not be asking them to come in to work if they meet any of the criteria for COVID-19 symptoms.

The OhioHealth Hardin Wellness Center is continuing to see therapy patients but will soon be resuming their wellness program tentatively June 1. The hours will be 5:30 a.m. to 7 a.m., 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. with a maximum of 10 wellness members working out at a time. The wellness center follows the same safety protocols as other OhioHealth entities conducting temperature screenings upon arrival and providing masks. Strict cleaning protocols are being followed throughout the day in order to keep attendees and staff safe.

OhioHealth Physician Group offices are continuing to offer telehealth appointments by phone or video to patients who do not need to be treated in person. More than 1,000 OhioHealth primary care and specialist physicians in nearly every medical specialty are caring for patients virtually with telehealth appointments. Your physician will decide whether a telehealth visit is the best to approach your care, based on your unique needs and medical necessity. Our goal is to make people feel safe and comfortable about engaging with OhioHealth, in-person and online.

To minimize contact for patients and staff, patients who have a scheduled procedure or test, can expect a phone call from our registration staff prior to their appointment. The staff will make sure all the patient demographic information is correct and will obtain verbal consent. Once the patient arrives to the hospital, patients can go directly to their testing department without stopping a registration.

For any patients who have a surgery or procedure with anesthesia or sedation at an OhioHealth facility, their physician will be ordering a COVID-19 test and it will need to be done within 72 hours of the procedure. COVID-19 testing can be done at Hardin Memorial Hospital at the testing site located on the west side of the hospital. The hours of operation are Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on weekends 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Please keep in mind that the testing site is not open to the general public but for patients who have a physician order only.

At this time, our visitor restrictions remains the same unless an exemption is met.

As you know the COVID-19 situation can change daily. OhioHealth will continue to follow guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Ohio Department of Health (ODH) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ensure we are doing everything possible to stop transmission of COVID-19 and keep our patients and associates safe.

For more information visit http://OhioHealth.com and search for the COVID-19 toolkit.