Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital’s Bitterroot Physicians Clinic has
opened a Respiratory Services location to serve patients experiencing
acute respiratory symptoms, for the safety of the staff and patients,
and to help community members feel comfortable going to the hospital during
this coronavirus pandemic.
Family Nurse Practitioner Katherine Dexter can usually be seen at the Marcus
Daly Convenient Care Clinic but is now at the Respiratory Services location.
Dexter said Respiratory Services was established to offer a separate, safe
and private location, so patients with respiratory symptoms are not waiting
among other patients.
“We’d like to keep patients with respiratory symptoms not sitting
in a waiting room,” she said. “We’re developing this
service so patients without respiratory symptoms feel comfortable sitting
in their regular doctor’s waiting room. Particularly people with
diabetes, heart disease or hypertension, we really don’t want them
exposed to someone with a cough.”
The entrance to the Respiratory Services location is a tent structure,
similar to a MASH unit, to provide less opportunity for exposure. The
entry has a triage nurse and patients with respiratory symptoms are taken
directly to a room. If there are too many patients then they wait in their
car until staff can come get them.
Read the entire article here →