Cape hospitals take different stands on elective surgeries

Elective surgeries will resume next week at Saint Francis Medical Center, but Southeast Hospital is not following suit, at least not for the time being.

Procedures classified as elective were put on hold more than a month ago at both Cape Girardeau hospitals as medical facilities across the nation redirected their resources in preparation for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Saint Francis announced Wednesday night it will resume elective operations and other procedures starting Monday. In addition, the hospital also plans to offer rapid molecular COVID-19 testing beginning today.

On Thursday, Southeast said it is taking a “cautious approach to ramping up elective surgeries” despite having new coronavirus testing capabilities to aide in testing patients for medical interventions. A statement from the hospital said the decision not to resume elective procedures at this time was made “in full collaboration from Southeast’s executive and surgical teams” and was “based on the evaluation of current recommendations from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) guidelines.”

“The pandemic is still going on,” said SoutheastHEALTH president and chief executive officer Ken Bateman. “We need to consider our entire community and their needs as we allocate our testing capabilities and PPE (personal protective equipment) resources for the most prevalent patient needs, prioritizing urgent and essential surgical cases, patients with chronic diseases and current inpatients.”

He said Southeast “will perform urgent, emergency and essential cases” and will “continue to monitor the regional situation and align our operations in keeping our patients and staff safety the top priority.”

In announcing it will resume elective procedures, Saint Francis said it will follow all guidelines issued by CMS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for resuming elective surgeries, including coronavirus testing for all surgical patients before their procedures.

For any patient requiring an overnight stay, one visitor will be permitted and the visitor will also be tested before the patient’s scheduled surgery.

“We are taking a stepwise approach to resuming surgeries which will allow us to continually monitor the COVID-19 situation while simultaneously serving the health care needs of our patients,” Saint Francis president and chief executive officer Maryann Reese said in the hospital statement. “We believe the processes we have put in place will safeguard our patients, our providers and our colleagues.”

Moving forward, Southeast said all surgical and procedural patients will be tested for COVID-19 before their scheduled procedures to reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus. Southeast patients requiring a hospital stay for their procedure will also be permitted to have a support person with them during the duration of their stay who will also be screened prior to the patient’s scheduled surgery.

In an interview last week with the Southeast Missourian, Missouri Hospital Association spokesman Dave Dillon said elective surgeries and procedures are “fairly lucrative components of hospital business” and canceling them during the coronavirus outbreak was costing Missouri hospitals millions of dollars a day.

Do you crave business news? Check out B Magazine, and the B Magazine email newsletter. Check it out at www.semissourian.com/newsletters to find out more.