DUBLIN, Ga. — The Carl Vinson Medical Center in Dublin is getting ready to start a phased reopening next week. Thursday afternoon, the center held a town hall on Facebook Live explaining the changes to veterans.
Director Dave Whitmer says a quarter of their doctors' appointments will be in-person beginning Monday under the first phase of their reopening. Before now, they've been via telehealth.
This will apply to primary care, mental health and specialty care. Whitmer says it's particularly for low-risk visits.
Whitmer says patients will have to complete screening and get their temperatures taken once they get to the entrance. If the veteran has a fever or any symptoms, they'll be directed to an outdoor screening facility where they'll be asked more questions about their symptoms, and in most cases, tested for COVID-19. Results come back within about an hour.
Just like employees, patients will be required to wear a mask, something the director urged in the virtual town hall on Thursday.
"You were taught to never leave a person behind," Whitmer said referring to training in the military. "It's the same philosophy with wearing a mask. You're wearing that mask to protect others."
As for surgeries, they're only doing emergency surgeries and procedures right now. Whitmer says they'll start offering some elective surgeries in phase 2.
"In a surgical procedure, we would make sure we have COVID test for the pre-op and then have an opportunity before we have a surgery to confirm that the veteran is not COVID positive," Whitmer said.
Right now, there's not a set date for when they'll move to phase 2. Whitmer says that's all up to what the data says.
"Part of that data is looking at the surrounding counties and the number of COVID cases, pneumonia or other symptoms...That we look at as part of the gating criteria," Whitmer said.
He says they'll reevaluate it in about a week or two.
Patients are asked to arrive no earlier than 15 minutes before their appointment. They're not allowing walk-ins or visitors under Phase 1. The center will continue to use telehealth for majority of their appointments for now.
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