ROYAL OAK (WXYZ) — Many public places have procedures in place to keep everyone safe, that includes hospitals. Even though they have visitor restrictions, Beaumont Health in Royal Oak offered us an inside look.
7 Action News reporter Syma Chowdhry toured their building and shows us what’s different at the hospital.
Before anyone walks in you have to answer some health questions.
“Sanitized and wearing a mask – that’s the protocol, that’s needed,” said Curtis Jordan.
Jordan and his daughter Tiffany are waiting for his wife to get out of surgery at Beaumont. His family knows how COVID-19 can be dangerous. His wife, Stephanie, contracted the virus in March. That’s when the doctors at Beaumont found a tumor on her heart.
She was on a ventilator for 30 days. After her recovery, Stephanie is now healthy enough for open heart surgery.
“Obviously, they did a very good job sustaining her life and repairing the damage,” Curtis said.
Curtis had been in the waiting room, which looks different. Staff removed more than half of the chairs in here. Dr. Nick Gilpin is the Beaumont Health’s System Medical Director for Infection Prevention.
“Believe it or not the hospitals are, maybe as safe now, as they’ve ever been,” Dr. Gilpin said.
Protocols like social distancing, wearing masks and sanitizing stations are keeping staff, patients and visitors safe. There are signs everywhere reminding you of this.
There are plastic barriers that were made at the hospital and installed at check-in areas. Many entrances and exits are closed.
You can enter the ER and get in a color coded line. The yellow line means you have coronavirus symptoms, blue means you don’t. The main entrance is the South Tower. The gift shop is closed.
Essentials like Papa Joes and Starbucks are open.
“We had to shut down some areas," Dr. Gilpin explained. "We had to remove chairs from waiting rooms. We had to close down some of our clinics."
The hospital says they are adapting based on CDC guidelines.
“If you’d ask me if we would be wearing masks in the middle of June six months, ago I would have probably laughed,” he said.
Stephanie is now recovering from the surgery. Curtis hopes all visitors respect the changes in place.
Beaumont staff believe these new policies will be in place at least through most of the summer.
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