As you are all well aware we are now facing a resurgence of COVID-19 cases. UW Medicine will have to triage surgical procedures as a way to both create in-hospital capacity and to potentially reallocate staffing to care for our COVID-19 patients in need. As our previous COVID-19 experiences have served to better inform us, we are planning to accommodate outpatients and higher acuity patients, while still providing the necessary services to care for COVID-19 patients.
After further discussion last evening with some of the surgical chairs and reviewing our capacity needs, the decision has been made to broaden the category of surgeries we will be rescheduling.
All non-urgent patients who will need to occupy a bed postop for any length of time will be rescheduled. The rescheduling will begin November 23rd – February 1st. At this time, all outpatients along with urgent and emergent cases will continue. Each day we will evaluate the bed and staffing capacity this creates. With the volume of care needed through the Emergency Department and transfers, we anticipate that any excess staff available will be needed in other areas, but will be monitoring closely.
We will get through this together!
Thank you.
Cindy Hecker
CEO, UW Medical Center
Paul Hayes, RN
CEO, Harborview Medical Center
