Desert Messenger

March 18, 2020 www.DesertMessenger.com 3 585 N. Central Quartzsite Open Mon-Fri 8-5 928-927-8787 Johnny DelPino, Owner BEST AUTO RV & TRUCK REPAIR SERVICE YOU CAN DEPEND ON! By Kevin Brown Chief Executive Officer To our valued customers and neighbors, At La Paz Regional Hospital, we know the important roles our hospi- tal and clinics play in your life, and we are grateful for the trust you put in us for your needs. As the situation around Coronavirus has developed, we have been and will continue to monitor all information locally, na- tionally and globally so we can plan how to best serve you. I wanted to take a moment to share some of the things our team is doing. Remember to limit contact with others. The new greeting, an elbow touch, can replace handshakes. -In-Stock Items at Your Local Markets. Many stores are asking customers to respect quantity lim- its of select, high-demand items (like hand sanitizers and household cleaners) to help ensure more of our neighbors can find the products they need. The stores are refilling high-demand products as quickly as they can. -Taking Care of Our Team. All of our staff will follow the CDC's rec- ommendations to keep themselves and their loved ones healthy. We expect our employees to stay home when they feel ill. We are working with our Human Resources team to ensure that every member of our team who faces a crisis can have peace of mind that we will help them get through it. Please help us keep our employees and commu- nity safe by being considerate of our staff and the new policies as we limit entry to our facilities. Patients and visitors will be required to per- form a screening before entering the facility. We must keep our patients and staff safe. -Planning for Local Needs. Our team is also planning to make sure we can serve you if your community becomes impacted in a significant way. From a single case to local community outbreaks or situations, we have plans to keep our facilities open and serving our communities. -Taking Care of You. Your health is important to us. Just as our team continues to follow the CDC's guid- ance on staying healthy, we encour- age you to do so, too. CDC's updat- ed definitions for self-observation, self-monitoring, and self-monitor- ing include: 1. Symptoms compatible with COVID-19, for the purpose of these recommendations, include subjec- tive or measured fever, cough, or difficulty breathing. 2. Self-observation means people should remain alert for subjective fever, cough, or difficulty breathing. If they feel feverish or develop cough or difficulty breathing during the self-observation period, they should take their temperature, self-isolate, limit contact with others, and seek advice by telephone from a health- care provider or their local health department to determine whether medical evaluation is needed. 3. Self-monitoring means people should monitor themselves for fever by taking their temperatures twice a day and remain alert for cough or difficulty breathing. If they feel fe- La Paz Regional Hospital COVID-19 update verish or develop measured fever, cough, or difficulty breathing dur- ing the self-monitoring period, they should self-isolate, limit contact with others, and seek advice by tele- phone from a healthcare provider or their local health department to determine whether medical evalua- tion is needed. 4. Self-monitoring with delegated supervision means, for certain occu- pational groups (e.g., some health- care or laboratory personnel, airline crew members), self-monitoring with oversight by the appropriate occupational health or infection control program in coordination with the health department of ju- risdiction. The occupational health or infection control personnel for the employing organization should establish points of contact between the organization, the self-monitor- ing personnel, and the local or state health departments with jurisdic- tion for the location where person- nel will be during the self-monitor- ing period. 5. Self-monitoring with public health supervision means public health authorities assume the re- sponsibility for oversight of self- monitoring for certain groups of people. The ability of jurisdictions to initiate or provide continued over- sight will depend on other compet- ing priorities (e.g., contact tracing, implementation of community mit- igation strategies). Depending on local priorities, CDC recommends that health departments consider establishing initial communication with these people, provide a plan for self-monitoring and clear in- structions for notifying the health department before the person seeks health care if they develop fever, cough, or difficulty breathing. 6. Active monitoring means that the state or local public health au- thority assumes responsibility for establishing regular communica- tion with potentially exposed people to assess for the presence of fever, cough, or difficulty breathing. For people with high-risk exposures, CDC recommends this communica- tion occurs at least once each day. The mode of communication can be determined by the state or local public health department. We know your hospital and clinics are central to the community. It is a space we share every day. Maintain- ing your trust is a responsibility we all take very seriously. On behalf of our entire team, thank you for the opportunity to serve you and your community.

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