Prairie Ridge Health has been preparing for the potential spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the US. “Hospitals treat patients with a variety of infectious diseases every day,” said Jamie Hendrix, MSN, RN, Vice President of Patient Care Services. “Our clinic and hospital care teams participate in ongoing emergency preparedness training to help us put systems in place to handle an influx of patients while keeping our healthcare providers safe so they may care for others. The spread of COVID-19 puts us on heightened alert to put what we know in place to protect and care for the communities we serve.”
We are working closely with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS), local public health officials, the Wisconsin Hospital Association WHA) and our healthcare partners to monitor, plan, and respond to COVID-19. Throughout the past few weeks, our team has been working hard to ensure the safety of our patients, team, and communities.
“The situation is evolving every day,” said Hendrix. "The key is to look the future and not the current moment so we can safeguard our patients, team, and the communities we serve." 
Restricting Visitors
The CDC has provided guidelines to help mitigate the potential spread of COVID-19. One practice in these guidelines is social distancing. That is why, as of March 23th and until further notice, we are restricting visitors as a precaution to protect our patients, team, and visitors.If a visitor is permitted within the facility, the visitor will be required to:
• Be screened before entering the building
• Be free of any symptoms
• Wear a face mask at all times
As a safety precaution, we also ask all visitors to please leave the room during, and for 1 hour after, all aerosolizing treatments. This includes nebulizers.
Thank you for your understanding during this time.
