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WVU Medicine working on plan to restart elective procedures

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — WVU Medicine is preparing to restart elective procedures after an executive order earlier this week from Gov. Jim Justice opens the door.

Albert Wright

“We’ve got to get back to a new normal where we’re able to take care of those patients that we’ve stalled their care or postponed their non-emergent procedures,” WVU Medicine President and CEO Albert Wright said during a Tuesday appearance on MetroNews “Talkline.” “We’re coming up with plans now.”

Hospitals across the state can begin filing their resumption plans with the state Department of Health and Human Resources next Monday, April 27. The DHHR is tasked with giving the approval for restart. Hospitals stopped the procedures under guidance from the federal Centers for Disease Control and later Gov. Justice issued an executive order. The move helped hospitals prepare for a possible surge of coronavirus patients and save supplies.

MORE Read executive order here

Wright said they are prioritizing and sorting through patients that had procedures scheduled along with those who were under the care of a doctor.

“If somebody had a procedure that got pushed back, they’ll be contacted by the hospital to get those rescheduled,” Wright said. “If someone needs medical care that they’ve not reached out for, they should use physician channels.”

There is another group of patients that have not had the opportunity to maintain preventive procedures, Wright said it’s important to restart that again.

“There are folks showing up at our emergency departments seeking care that had been delayed or they had not been in close contact with their doctor as they usually are. We want to make sure those types of things don’t fester, so we’re keeping people healthy and out of the hospital when we can,” Wright said.

WVU Medicine is prioritizing procedures for the beginning of the process while still treating those with COVID-19.

“The sickest patients, patients with cancer, tumors, or leaky heart valves things like that,” Wright said. “Moving toward going back to full service over the next month, but constantly being able to take care of what we still anticipate to be a slow wave of COVID-19 patients.”

Wright said moving back to normal operations will be a process after what’s been so far a 21-day hiatus of elective procedures.

“We’ll work with the state and the governor’s office and follow their rules and regulations,” Wright said. “I think probably closer to the middle of May is a more realistic target for when we get back to normal operations, but April 27 is the first step in that process.”

WVU Medicine, which owns or manages 19 hospitals in West Virginia with 16,000 employees, is currently operating under a four-point plan that it put into place earlier this month in response to the reduction in patients in connection with the elective procedures original decision.

The plan includes no layoffs.

Workers that cannot be reassigned are being paid 75 percent of their current hourly rate or current work status. Those employees will also keep their benefits.

“We are still going to pay you 75 percent of your salary. So they will have some level of financial security,” Wright said when the plan went into place.

Wright and other senior staff members are taking a 10 percent pay cut over the next six months to finance the decision to keep employees on their jobs. There’s also a three-month hiring freeze across the entire system and the employer match of everyone’s 403(b) retirement accounts has been suspended for the rest of the year.

Some of the changes were to be reexamined in May.





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