Missouri Baptist Sullivan Volume For COVID-19 Less Than Anticipated
Missouri Baptist Sullivan Hospital has remained and continues to be vigilant in the battle against COVID-19, however, the increased volume of those infected with the virus has remained low.
Tony Schwarm, President, and Lisa Lochner, Vice President of Operations, spoke with the Sullivan Independent News on Monday, April 27.
“The state of the union, so to speak, is that obviously we have not seen the volume we anticipated locally here with COVID-19,” said Schwarm, “There have been seven cases in Crawford County thus far and over 100 in Franklin, with many of those being confined to nursing homes.”
Schwarm and Lochner reported that the testing site at MBSH has slowed and the triage site erected near the Emergency Room has not had to be utilized much thus far. In fact, the testing site for COVID-19 will now be moved to Bourbon.
The triage center itself is currently being evaluated as to how long it will remain on the hospital campus as things appear to slow locally with COVID-19.
“We are anticipating movement from Gov. Mike Parson with Phase One of what life is going to be like after COVID,” said Schwarm. “We’re planning on doing a soft opening of the medical clinic on Wednesday and in phase one bringing in OR and GI procedures.”
Lochner reported that the clinic has been seeing limited patients at this time with most of the doctor visits being conducted via video conferencing.
“You know, with COVID-19 we planned for the worst and prayed for the best and sheltering in place has had a huge impact on the numbers,” said Schwarm,
“We want to thank our medical partners, our business community that has provided meals to our employees during this time, Sullivan Police Department, Sullivan Fire Department, the many businesses that have donated a number of items to us and Sullivan Independent News for working with us,” said Lochner. “This has been an unprecedented time and to see everyone rally behind each other has been great to see.”
Both Schwarm and Lochner stated that they will remain vigilant and BJC is ready to pivot very quickly should a second wave of COVID-19 occur.
As for overall testing in the local area, the two medical professionals indicated that they have had testing available, but have not had the patients needing testing at this time.
For more on future testing see a related article on the testing site moving to Bourbon Medical Office.
In conclusion, Schwarm and Lochner were asked if upper respiratory infections that were observed locally in late January/February were possibly COVID-19 related. The two replied that they have no data to support that statement at this time.