Columbus Dispatch: Anticipating COVID-19 Patient Surge

As cases of COVID-19 reach into the thousands, central Ohio healthcare providers are planning for both the best and worst case scenarios. At OhioHealth, doctors and hospital leaders have spent the past several weeks on conference calls and in video chats putting together contingency plans.

OhioHealth and other area hospitals have asked patients to call ahead for appointments, restricted visitors, postponed elective procedures and boosted their reliance on technology. OhioHealth will use up to 500 iPads to communicate with COVID-19 patients, so doctors and nurses don’t have to use protective gear to enter rooms more often than necessary.

Bruce Vanderhoff, MD, OhioHealth senior vice president and chief medical officer, and others inside OhioHealth’s COVID-19 command center are also focused on issues like the shortage of protective gear, where to put patients as they recover and whether trauma surgeons can be redeployed to provide critical care.

“We're viewing this right now as the expected preparatory phase. We've had to make a major shift,” Vanderhoff told Columbus Dispatch reporter Max Filby. “I have been just terribly impressed by the caring and the commitment of our frontline providers ... It has just amazed me.”

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