SARASOTA, Fla. — It's getting back to business as usual, as Sarasota County, the state of Florida and the country begin reopening.
Sarasota Memorial Hospital had canceled all non-emergency surgeries because of the COVID-19 pandemic but started wheeling patients into operating rooms two weeks ago, according to president and CEO David Verinder.
He said the process of resuming normal services is "slow and methodical."
"We need to make sure that our staff and our patients are safe, so we're doing it in coordination with the state protocols, national research and science and certainly our own medical staff is giving guidance to that," Verinder said in a Youtube video.
And, getting back to regular business is important because the hospital was forced to furlough some of its staff. According to Verinder, about half of the furloughed employees have since returned to work.
Surgeries and emergency room visits had dropped about 50 percent because of the pandemic but are slowly returning to normal levels.
He said a lot of people with serious medical conditions were too scared to go to the hospital, but he stressed that "this hospital is a very very safe place to be."
Verinder said COVID patients make up just a "small fraction" of the patients at the hospital – roughly 5 percent
He also addressed the hospital's numerous construction projects, saying they've all continued without delay. The new cancer institute construction, for example, is still slated to open August 3 without a delay
You can watch Verinder's entire video message here:
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