Doctors ready to resume performing elective surgeries postponed by the pandemic

Hospital administrators, doctors, and nurses are ramping up efforts to start performing elective surgeries again since the Coronavirus outbreak began.

DOCTORS━ AND NURSES ARERAMPING UP EFFORTS TO STARTPERFORMING ELECTIVE SURGERIESAGAIN SINCE THE OUTBREAKBEGAN.

AS PART OF OUR REBOUNDMARYLAND SERIES━ WMAR 2NEWS' MARK ROPER TAKES A LOOKAT HOW HOSPITALS ARREBOUNDING SINCE THE BAN ONELECTIVE SURGERIES WAS LIFTEúSTANDUP: MANY HEALTHCAREWORKERS HAVE BEEN OVERWHELMEDBY THE PANDEMIC WHILE OTHERMEDICAL PROCEDURES WERE PUT ONHOLD.

BUT NOW THAT DOCTORS ARESTARTING TO PERFORM ELECTIVESURGERIES AGAIN IT DOESN'TMEAN EVERYTHING IS BACK TONORMAL INSIDE HOSPITALS JUSTYET.

LIFEBRIDGE HEALTH CHIEFCLINICAL OFFICER━ DR.MATTHEW POFFENROTH EXPLAINSWHAT CHALLENGES ADMINISTRATORSARE FACING... TAKE SOTRUNS=0:13 (8:03) we still haveto be mindful of supplies ofPPE, and medications and evenjust OR staffing, we ended upredeploying a lot of our ORstaff, our nurses, and techto the ICU's FOR ABOUT TWOMONTHS━ MOST HOSPITALPROCEDURES WERE LIMITED TOURGENT OR EMERGENCY CAREDURING THE STATE OF EMERGENCY.some of that work was stillbeing done, and that's sort ofsemi urgent, meaning, that ifyou put it off you couldpotentially have a badoutcome, now it's really opup to everything, evencosmetic plastic surgery forexample, which is purelelective STILL━ SOMEPATIENTS MIGHT BE RELUCTANTGO TO A PLACE WHERE THEY KNOTHERE'S A CHANCE PEOPLE WITHCOVI━19 ARE BEING TREATEDultimately that's a quality oflife decision for patients,why they're having surgery, soif they determine that, youknow what, the discomfort ofwalking on an arthritic kneeis worth putting up wiopposed to the risk of gettingcovid, then they'll delay thsurgery BUT FOR PATIENTS READYTO RESCHEDULE━ THEY SHOULDEXPECT TO BE TESTED FORCOVI━19 AS THEY'RE R━EXAMINED FOR SURGERY.

We'retrying to do that testingwithin five days or so beforethe procedure, and then askingthem to stay at home, if theyend up testing positive whenthey're asymptomatic then wegive them the appropriateadvice as far as quarantiningand then we will delay theprocedure DELAYS BROUGHT ON BYTHE PANDEMIC COULD LEAD TO ANINITIAL SURGE OF PATIENTSANXIOUS TO FINALLY HAVE THEELECTIVE SURGERY THEY'VE BEENWAITING FOR━ BUT POFFENROTHSAYS DOCTORS ALSO COULD SEEANOTHER DROP AS THEY CATCH Uits a several month longprocess, sometimes before youend up actually having theprocedure that's scheduled,well if you're not seeing yourprimary care physician, totalk to them about your pain,or your lump or whatever, thatwhole process has to staragain AND BEFORE ANYONE ENTERSTHE HOSPITAL━ ALL EMPLOYEES━ PATIENTS AND PROVIDERS WILLHAVE TO BE SCREENED AND WEAR AMASK.

IN NORTHWEST BALTIMORE━ MARK ROPER WMAR 2 NEWS.WITH SO MANY PEOPLE W