DCH Coronavirus Update 8-21-20

Teddy Bears

Yesterday the Exchange Club provided 100 teddy bears to DCH. With the limited visitation restrictions in place, this comfort is needed and appreciated by the patients more than ever!

Exchange Club of Tuscaloosa is a service organization and has been chartered with the National Exchange Club since 1923. According to its website, its members focus on community support, youth development, honoring America and child abuse prevention.

For many years the organization has partnered with local law enforcement to deliver a little comfort, in the form of teddy bears, to the pediatric patients at DCH.

The bears were distributed for use in the Emergency Department and the Pediatrics Unit. Shown in the photo are DCH Regional Medical Center Emergency Department staff members with a few of the bears.

Thank you, Exchange Club of Tuscaloosa; the bears will be put to good use!

Fayette Medical Center Earns another National Recognition

Fayette Medical Center (FMC), part of the DCH system, has received a five-star patient experience rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that administrates Medicare. FMC is one of only four hospitals in Alabama and one of 266 nationwide to receive a five-star rating, placing FMC in the top 8 percent of the nation’s hospitals.

“I am proud of our team here at Fayette Medical Center,” said FMC Administrator Donald Jones. “They are so dedicated to providing our community the highest level of care.”

The agency assigned a patient experience star rating based on the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, or HCAHPS, scores collected from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2019. HCAHPS scores are determined by patient responses to a number of topics, including provider communication, pain management, communication about medicines, discharge information, cleanliness and quietness of the hospital environment, overall rating and willingness to recommend.

This is the second national recognition for Fayette Medical Center in recent weeks. Earlier this summer, the hospital was named one of Newsweek’s Best Hospitals in the United States for 2020.

Testing and Confirmed Cases

To protect patient privacy, DCH has established a minimum threshold of five for reporting numbers of inpatients with laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19.

DCH internal counts as of 2:20 p.m. on 8/21/20:

• 69 inpatients are being treated for COVID-19.
• 25 inpatients who are positive for COVID-19 are being treated in the ICU.
• Seven who are positive for COVID-19 are on ventilators.
• Eight who are positive for COVID-19 are on a BiPAP.
• 2,732 (cumulative) unique positives for COVID-19 tests including results from the ED, triage tent and inpatient. These individuals are not necessarily in the hospital.
• 17,716 (cumulative) unique negatives for COVID-19 at DCH sites.
• 3,546 (cumulative) positive COVID-19 at DCH sites. These individuals are not necessarily in the hospital.
• 24,213 (cumulative) negative tests at DCH sites.
• 749 inpatients (cumulative) who were positive for COVID-19 have been discharged.
• 146 inpatients (cumulative) who were positive for COVID-19 have died at DCH. This is not an indication of the cause of death, only that the individuals were positive for COVID-19 at the time of death.
• 86 Tuscaloosa County residents (cumulative) who were positive for COVID-19 have died (per the Alabama Department of Public Health).