Community Letter From CEO and Emergency Services Medical Director

Katie Schwint | May 27th, 2020

To the Communities BVRMC Serves,

In the last week, the number of positive COVID-19 cases numbers increased in BV County. Please know we expected this result given the very aggressive testing that has taken place between BVRMC, long term care facilities testing by Public Health, Test Iowa, and other local industry conducting testing.

BVRMC has been preparing to serve any COVID-19 cases for months. Our medical, clinical, and support teams have implemented processes with the ultimate goal of taking care of our community and our employees based on the best information we have from the Centers for Disease Control, Iowa Department of Public Health and other health organizations.

We know many of you wish we could provide very specific information about positive cases.  Being a small community, people can be quickly identified with even the smallest detail. We promise we are doing the best we can while still meeting federal patient privacy laws that we must follow for all patients.  All COVID-19 cases are publicly reported through the Iowa Department of Public Health, which includes anyone from BV County or the surrounding areas that we serve.  These numbers can be found at www.coronavirus.iowa.gov.

We have and continue to care for COVID-19 patients in a variety of settings within our organization. Our medical team works with the patients and their family on the best plan of care for their situation.  At times, this involves transferring patients based upon their specific needs to another facility.  This process is no different than our normal protocols and has been part of our pandemic response plan from the start.  We have partnerships and/or relationships with hospitals in Sioux City, Fort Dodge, Omaha, Des Moines, and Sioux Falls and continue to work with them on a wide variety of issue beyond just COVID-19.  One thing we all have learned throughout the pandemic is that the things change a lot, and often very quickly, and we want to acknowledge our staffs’ continuing ability to adapt to meet the needs of the community/region.  To date of writing this letter, we are still in very good shape from a PPE supply standpoint and have ample capacity to care for both COVID-19 patients and those with other health needs.

We know many of you are concerned, wanting more specifics, and wishing someone had a crystal ball to look into the future and tell you when we can get back to normal. All we can promise is that we are your local community hospital and many of our patients are our family and friends. We will continue to do everything we can do to serve the health needs of everyone during this trying time.

Sincerely,

Rob Colerick, CEO

Dr. Garrett Feddersen, Emergency Services Medical Director