Like many health care providers nationwide, Aspirus is suspending many of the non-urgent appointments at its facilities to help keep patients safe during the coronavirus outbreak.
Matt Brewer is vice-president of Operations and Chief Nursing Officer of Aspirus Medical Group.
Brewer says the COVID-19 outbreak is much more of a marthon than a sprint. He says they're making staffing plans so they have people available as the community needs it.
He says social distancing is very important to minimizing disease impacts....
"We started by identifying some criteria how we might postpone, not cancel, but postpone a number of visits that we had on the books so we know people are still safe and limit the distance people are in proximity to each other, and care for these people here in the near future.."
Brewer says the outbreak is slowly evolving. Initially, screening was focused on people who traveled and those folks nearby, but he says it's now evolving to asking people to watch their symptoms and not seeking care when there's mild symptoms and to stay at home as long as you feel safe to be there...
"Most states are in those red category states now of community transmission so now it's really watching those signs and symptoms. Shortness of breath, cough. More of that lower respiratory type of illness, the head cold type stuff where you don't have a fever you just feel kind of crummy...."
If you think you’ve been exposed to COVID-19, Brewer says they have a call center number 1-844-568-0701, open 7a.m. – 7p.m., Monday – Friday, 8a.m. – 5p.m., Saturday – Sunday.
There's also an e-visit option online at MyAspirus.org or Aspirus.org and click the video visits icon.
