Q&A: How To Safely Get Medical Care During A Pandemic
LifeBridge Health Dr. Jonathan Thierman, the chief medical information officer at LifeBridge Health and Emergency Room physician at SinaiHospital and Northwest Hospital, spoke to WJZ's Denise Koch about why getting medical care non-related to coronavirus is still important during a pandemic.
Gov. Larry Hogan recently lifted restrictions on elective surgeries and procedures.
"It's huge for our hospital which has been suffering with very low volumes for various reasons obviously in the last few months," Dr. Thierman said. "So just beginning to normalize our operations will help the hospital. It will also help our patients who have been suffering at home with things that needed to be addressed but have been on hold for the last few months."
Denise: What sort of things are you referring to?
Dr. Thierman: We've seen a lot of people, unfortunately, who were afraid to go to the emergency department for things like a heart attack or strokes, who essentially had those at home, and then came into us in heart failure or with the significant irreversible deficit.
We could do much less about it three days later than we could have initially, so it's been heartbreaking to see that type of acuity rise because people have been staying away from the ERs. We've also seen appendicitis for example that have ruptured because people stay at home, and that becomes a much more life and death situation than just having appendicitis which is pretty routinely taken care of.
Watch more of the interview and learn about the precautions LifeBridge Health and other hospitals are taking to keep patients safe if they need medical attention during the pandemic.