Monday, June 16, 2025
57.0°F

Samaritan Hospital will check everyone before entering building

CHERYL SCHWEIZER | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 5 years, 2 months AGO
by CHERYL SCHWEIZER
Senior Reporter Cheryl Schweizer is a journalist with more than 30 years of experience serving small communities in the Pacific Northwest. She began her post-high-school education at Treasure Valley Community College and enerned her journalism degree at Oregon State University. After working for multiple publications, she has settled down at the Columbia Basin Herald and has been a staple of the newsroom for more than a decade. Schweizer’s dedication to her communities and profession has earned her the nickname “The Baroness of Bylines.” She covers a variety of beats including health, business and various municipalities. | March 22, 2020 10:28 PM

MOSES LAKE — Samaritan Hospital officials are looking for — but not finding, at least not yet — additional ventilation machines and adapting more hospital rooms to accommodate possible patients with respiratory illnesses. Hospital officials updated commissioners on the response to the COVID-19 outbreak during a special meeting Friday.

Director of nursing Jan Sternberg said the hospital will start screening all people, including staff, before they enter the hospital, beginning today.

“That’s a temperature check, just to ensure they do not have a fever, and also we’re asking them several questions to make sure they don’t have any respiratory or flu-like symptoms,” Sternberg said.

A tent is being installed outside the emergency room with the intention of screening patients coming to the ER. That screening is scheduled to start Wednesday, Sternberg said.

Hospital officials added “negative pressure” rooms to the intensive care unit and its medical-surgical unit, Sternberg said. A negative pressure room allows air to flow in, but not back out, decreasing the possibility of contamination.

“We are seeing more critical patients,” Sternberg said. “We are seeing more people come in with respiratory-type issues that need a higher level of care.” Samaritan has the ability to provide the necessary level of care, she said.

Two negative-pressure rooms will be available in the ICU and 10 more in the medical-surgical unit.

Currently, the hospital has four ventilators, Sternberg said. A ventilator can have more than one patient on it, if necessary. Part of the hospital’s plan would be to put two patients with the same disease on one ventilator, if circumstances required.

The hospital has eight other machines designed to help people breathe that can be adapted as ventilators, Sternberg said. There’s also one normally used when patients must be transported. Hospital officials are looking for and asking for more ventilators and other machines, she said, but haven’t found any.

Chief Executive Officer Theresa Sullivan said no one is sure whether an increase in patients will happen, and if it does, when it might happen. The predictions are for an increase, she said, but as yet there’s no way to know if the predictions are correct.

Andrea Carter, chief of the medical staff, said people can help arrest the spread of the virus by following the instructions to avoid close contact with others.

“We’d like to avoid a big surge, right? But the only way we’re really going to do that is keep everybody in their own homes, away from other people,” Carter said.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.

MORE COVID-19 STORIES

Elective surgeries may resume soon at Samaritan
Columbia Basin Herald | Updated 5 years, 1 month ago
Patients urged not to delay medical care
Columbia Basin Herald | Updated 5 years, 1 month ago
Not So Fast Using CPAPs In Place Of Ventilators. They Could Spread The Coronavirus.
Bonner County Daily Bee | Updated 5 years, 2 months ago

ARTICLES BY CHERYL SCHWEIZER

Applicants sought for Grant County Health Commission seat
June 16, 2025 3 a.m.

Applicants sought for Grant County Health Commission seat

MOSES LAKE — Applications are being accepted from qualified people for one commission position and two alternate positions on the Grant County Board of Health. Vice chair Matt Palach said the job involves overseeing an agency with wide-ranging responsibilities, from birth and death certificates to infectious disease investigations.

Former Port of Mattawa director under investigation for misuse of funds
June 14, 2025 5:18 p.m.

Former Port of Mattawa director under investigation for misuse of funds

MATTAWA — The Grant County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a report from the Washington State Auditor’s Office that found former Port of Mattawa General Manager Lars Leland may have misappropriated port funds. Port commissioners said in a statement that some possible irregularities were discovered while port officials were preparing for an audit.

Moses Lake Ace store closes
June 12, 2025 6:33 p.m.

Moses Lake Ace store closes

MOSES LAKE — Ag Supply Ace Hardware has ceased operation in Moses Lake after seven years in business. The closure was announced Tuesday.