XENIA — Greene Memorial Hospital and Soin Medical Center are preparing for another wave of COVID cases as the variant Delta is becoming more prevalent.
“We are trying to be proactive to make sure we’re ready from all facets, including staffing, employees, equipment, etc.,” Kettering Health Patient Safety Officer Dr. Jeffrey Weinstein said. “We are re-instituting things we had done away with due to lowering COVID rates.”
Both hospitals will initially see COVID or potential COVID cases. If patients show up to GMH and it is determined that they do have COVID, they will be transferred to Soin.
“We are expanding bed usage and COVID areas at Soin,” Weinstein said.
When COVID hit the United States in 2020, GMH and SMC were adequately prepared, Weinstein said, adding that GMH and SMC have always been preparing for a pandemic. The facilities just did not know what organism would cause the pandemic.
“It was felt as a matter of when and not if a pandemic would occur,” Weinstein said. “Infectious disease specialists always knew something would eventually happen. Before it hit Ohio, it hit the United States. It gave us time to prepare. We have a very strong infection and prevention team within Soin and Greene. We coordinate across our team. We follow guidelines from the Ohio Department of Health and the CDC.”
The early stages of the pandemic provided GMH and SMC with some learning experience, which will help the hospitals deal with Delta and/or any other variants.
“Most of the protocols for keeping staff and patients safe are the same no matter what variant comes about,” Weinstein said. “The biggest change is that a large number of our employees and providers are now vaccinated from the virus. We are better prepared now than we were before.”
GMH and SMC communicate with other hospitals/medical centers within and outside the Kettering Health network. Kettering Health is also part of the Greater Dayton Hospital Association which includes Premier Health and Dayton Children’s.
“There are many layers of communication and coordination,” Weinstein said. “Our departments are part of network structure. All directions are made for the facilities in our network.”
