By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A Mosaic Life Care Emergency Room physician says Mosaic has learned a lot about the coronavirus in the last few months.
Dr. Jeremy Hunter adds what doctors in the ER are learning about COVID-19 changes day-by-day, hour-by-hour.
“So, it’s a continual learning process. The symptomatic care remains true,” Hunter tells reporters during a news conference at the St. Joseph hospital, saying they have to approach treatment unlike what they typically do with pneumonia or viral pneumonia. “So, we’re really learning daily, almost hourly how medical management is different.”
Hunter says Mosaic’s St. Joseph Emergency Room has been able to handle the workload. Mosaic has 18 ER rooms dedicated to potential COVID-19 cases, which are quickly separated from the rest of the patients coming to the Emergency Room. He says no one who has an emergency not related to the coronavirus should hesitate to come to the ER. Hunter says procedures make the ER safe and needed treatment should not be delayed.
The St. Joseph hospital also is prepared to turn the 4th and 5th floors into COVID-19 wards, with 48 units on each floor.
Hunter warns that no one should dismiss the coronavirus or act as if it is nothing more than the flu. Hunter say COVID-19 is real and has not been hyped.
“This is different than influenza. This is presenting different,” Hunter says of COVID-19 patients. “They’re in ICU for much longer. It’s not all hype and this is a different disease with higher virulence in a certain subset of the population, it seems, and it’s worth being concerned about.”
Hunter does say he wishes the city could test more people.
“When this started, we had very limited testing,” according to Hunter. “But now it’s getting much better to where we can really test people. It might not be a 15-minute answer. It might be a 24-hour answer, but in the right patient population, that’s okay.”
As of Wednesday, Mosaic had tested 3,223 people with 157 testing positive for COVID-19. Ten of those patients have been hospitalized. Mosaic is awaiting results from 125 tests.