TO: Ballad Health All
FROM: Ballad Health Corporate Emergency Operations Center
DATE: Feb. 8, 2022
TITLE: Extension: Crisis Standards of Care; Strategies to Mitigate Healthcare Personnel Staffing Shortages
ACTION: Please post and cascade to all team members.
Due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant of COVID-19 and its impact to our team members and healthcare workers across the country, Ballad Health will continue to follow the CDC’s updated guidance for strategies to mitigate healthcare personnel staffing shortages until Monday, Feb. 14, 2022, when we will reevaluate to determine if crisis standards should be maintained or downgraded. Additionally, contact tracing will remain suspended until reevaluation on Feb. 14.
Update on COVID visitation guidelines
As a follow-up to our announcement last week regarding updated visitation guidelines which took effect Monday, Feb. 7, for COVID-positive patients, please note that Ballad Health’s Family Birth Centers will continue their current practice of allowing one support person to stay during labor and post-labor, and Niswonger Children’s Hospital will continue to allow pediatric COVID patients to have two guardians for the entire stay.
Click here to read the full announcement on updates to COVID-19 visitation guidelines, announced on Friday, Feb. 4.
Questions
Have a question about vaccines, the Omicron variant, or a new policy? Contact the Ballad Health Corporate Emergency Operations Center at BalladHealthCorporateEOC@balladhealth.org.
