Flint Township View

McLaren Flint announces roadmap to safely resume time-sensitive care


FLINT — McLaren Flint has continued to provide exceptional, safe and compassionate care to patients throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, McLaren Flint is beginning to look to the future to provide the care that had been deferred over the last six weeks or longer. As a result, McLaren has developed a roadmap to safely resume time-sensitive care, which includes clinical and testing protocols, further enhancements to safety for our staff and patients, prioritization of surgical cases that were postponed, personal protective equipment guidelines, and much more.

“At McLaren Flint we understand that safety is foremost in everyone’s minds during these unprecedented times,” said Chad Grant, president and CEO of McLaren Flint. “The safety of our patients and staff is always our top priority. We want to assure the patients seeking care at our facilities, that they are being treated in a safe environment by personnel who are adhering to the most current safety precautions.”

With the curve beginning to flatten over the last 14 days, the hospital does understand that coronavirus will be present in our community for the foreseeable future. To ensure the safety of patients, McLaren Flint is beginning to open services in a very controlled fashion with many safety measures in place including:

• Screening all patients, visitors, and our own staff for signs and symptoms of COVID- 19 before they enter our facilities. Anyone experiencing symptoms is prohibited from entering and is directed to the appropriate level of care.

• Establishing dedicated units where they are caring for COVID-19 positive and suspected positive patients.

• Testing patients prior to their procedure to identify those who are COVID-19 positive but not showing symptoms.

• Limiting seating in certain areas to create space between those waiting for care. For patients seeking care for non-life-threatening conditions, the McLaren Flint and McLaren Fenton emergency centers offer the ability to check in online and wait at home or nearby.

• Caregivers and support staff are wearing additional protective equipment to keep patients and themselves safe when providing care. McLaren is providing a mask to patients and encouraging visitors to bring their own personal mask. If visitors do not have a mask, one will be provided for them.

• Adding cleaning processes throughout our facilities to enhance our already robust sanitization protocols.

• Frequently updating our policies and procedures to reflect the latest information available from the CDC.

Details: Visit www.mclaren.org/safecare.G.G.