to resume in communities where COVID-19 cases are on the decline.
Reopening a facility is more involved than switching on the surgical
lights and firing up the autoclave. It demands a slow build back to rel-
ative normalcy due to local health department restrictions and the
practicality of performing surgery under new policies and procedures
that have disrupted well-honed routines.
When Florida's governor reopened parts of the state in early May,
Nikki Williams, RN, CNOR, began to plan a soft opening of the
Lakeland (Fla.) Surgical & Diagnostic Center (LSDC). She spent five
long days and late nights huddling with the facility's clinical leaders to
develop reopening protocols.
"It's a fluid policy that we alter almost daily in response to the
changing circumstances associated with the virus," says Ms. Williams,
the center's clinical director. "Flexibility has been key."
William H. Marx, DO, is heading the surgery restart efforts at
Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse, N.Y. He's tasked with ensur-
ing elective procedures are relaunched safely and appropriately in
two large hospitals and two surgery centers. It's been a slow and
steady ramp up.
"We're moving cautiously," says Dr. Marx. "We're going as fast as it's
safe to do. Everyone is appropriately anxious and trying to follow our
local health department's requirements for social distancing and mask
wearing."
Karen Curley, RN, nursing director of procedural services at UConn
Health Surgery Center in Farmington, Conn., is helping to reopen the
facility, which stopped hosting elective procedures on March 17.
Nearly a month later, the center began to gradually add elective cases.
"The decision to start slowly was made in the interest of staff and
patient safety, the availability of COVID-19 testing and adequate levels
of PPE supplies," says Ms. Curley. "We wanted to make sure we had all
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