OHIO, USA — On Monday, Governor DeWine announced the first round of major changes in a plan to re-open Ohio, including hospitals that will be able to resume many functions starting on May 1.
“All healthcare procedures that can be done that do nor require an overnight stay in the hospital, we can move forward with those procedures,” said Governor DeWine.
Effective May 1, hospitals and medical facilities can start to get back to normal.
Dr. Dan Simon, President of University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center says it’s a welcome sign.
“It will allow us to take care of our patients with chronic health conditions who’ve been forgoing these very important services over the last, you know, since mid-March,” says Dr. Simon.
Dr. Brook Watts, MetroHealth’s Chief Quality Officer says wearing masks will now apply to everyone.
“We like to say that we’ve got a mask on but were smiling underneath that mask. When our patients come to the system they’ll be, we encourage them to bring their own mask if they have one, and if not they’ll be provided one when they get here,” says Dr. Watts.
The Cleveland Clinic released a statement to 3News saying “Following Governor DeWine’s comments today, we are developing a phased approach for reactivating our clinical services to serve our patients and will share details soon.”
Statewide, many elective surgeries are still on hold.
“As we see how were moving forward and the availability of PPE, we will when that time is appropriate open that up as well,” says Governor DeWine.
Both MetroHealth and University Hospitals say they prefer that patients with the most serious conditions call now and get on the calendar first for procedures.