Lexington VA closely monitoring veterans during COVID-19 pandemic
The Lexington VA Health Care System is taking many precautions in the wake of COVID-19 to ensure our veterans remain safe.
Our leadership team is a part of the emergency planning team, which meets daily to ensure decisions are implemented quickly. The team also meets with our Veterans Integrated Service Network leadership daily to confirm that our operations are in-line with national expectations. We are strictly adhering to the Centers of Disease Control (CDC) guidelines.
Out of an abundance of caution, we implemented screening for Covid-19 for our patients on March 9. We screen any veteran or visitor arriving at our facilities for Covid-19. At our Sousley Campus, all traffic now enters through the gate with the traffic light and immediately turns right. At the checkpoint, a screener will ask three questions:
- Do you have a fever?
- Do you have a cough or a sudden respiratory illness?
- Have you been in contact with a person who knowingly has Covid-19?
If the veteran or (anyone else in the car) screens positive, they will drive to a secondary screening staging point where clinicians conduct a secondary screen. Secondary screening determines whether veterans are cleared to proceed to their appointments, need to quarantine at home, or should move to our Emergency Department. If the veteran screens negative, they will be allowed to enter the facility and are screened again upon entry and in the clinic at their appointments.
At the Bowling Campus, all employees are entering through a separate door to alleviate congestion in our lobby. All veterans enter through our lobby where they are screened. Positively screened veterans are sent to the ER; if a veteran screens negative, they proceed to their appointments where they are screened again.
Our community clinics in Berea, Somerset, Morehead and Hazard are also screening Veterans with appointments upon check-in and again when they see their clinician. Positively screened Veterans are sent to their local emergency rooms. Berea Veterans come to the ER at Bowling Campus.
Our community living center restricted access to visitors the same day Kentucky confirmed a case of Covid-19. Our mental health team immediately started moving all mental health appointments to telehealth, even group therapies. Our other clinics are calling Veterans and offering them telehealth appointments, when clinically appropriate.
We’ve stopped all elective procedures and suspended in-patient visitation with exceptions for end-of-life and complex decision making. Our outpatients can continue to bring escorts, but we are not allowing children under 16-years-old in clinical areas, and they must be accompanied in the waiting room.
As any Veteran will tell you, adaptability is paramount, especially in times of crisis. And, it’s during these times of crisis that we draw upon our collective military experience to meet the challenges we face head on. Our veterans trust us to provide for them in even the toughest environments, and even now, we stand ready to deliver to them the care they have earned.
Gregory G. Goins, Director, Lexington VA Health Care System