St. Luke’s suspends elective surgeries, local businesses organize against mandates
By Eric Valentine
Valley infrastructure and emotions are being pushed to the brink thanks to the recent uptick in COVID-19 cases being felt locally and across the globe in recent days. Just this past week, St. Luke’s announced temporarily suspending certain elective surgeries, Blaine County School District halted in-person learning at one of its schools, and local businesses hanging on by a financial thread in some cases pushed back against certain pandemic-related mandates.
Blaine County’s average new case rate has been in the critical zone for several weeks and is still rising. The county positive rate remains high at 11 percent, meaning 11 people in every 100 people tested are positive for the virus that has now killed nearly a quarter million Americans.
“It is our hope that everyone takes the necessary steps to curb the rise in cases. Wearing a mask, limiting gatherings, watching your distance and practicing good hygiene can protect you and your loved ones and help us in our ability to add back elective surgeries,” Carmen Jacobsen, chief nursing officer/COO at St. Luke’s Wood River, said.
Surgery Strategy
Due to significant and increasing COVID-19 activity resulting in hospitalization in the community, St. Luke’s Health System announced Thursday that in order to proactively manage its capacity for care, it will temporarily stop scheduling certain elective surgeries and procedures that can be delayed 90 or more days. This temporary pause went into effect Monday, Nov. 16, and will be in place until Friday, Dec. 25.
Impacted most severely are St. Luke’s Boise, Meridian, Magic Valley and Nampa medical centers which will cancel all elective surgeries that can be delayed 90 days or more. Currently scheduled elective surgeries and procedures at St. Luke’s hospitals in McCall, Mountain Home, and Wood River will proceed as planned and the status will be evaluated on a weekly basis as well.
In preparation for winter and to accommodate the increased demand for COVID-19 testing, St. Luke’s Wood River is relocating its primary location for COVID-19 tests to the main campus at 100 Hospital Drive in Ketchum beginning Wednesday, Nov. 18. Testing will be performed Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. via a mobile trailer located near the Physician Office Annex. Patients will drive up to a window for self-collection under the guidance and direction of a caregiver.
Mask Up Lowdown
Blaine County and each city in the Wood River Valley have enacted mostly similar mandates for mask wearing and gatherings both indoors and outdoors. But in the face of little to no recent federal government assistance for businesses and individuals, small business owners are pushing back. As reported, a loose coalition of business owners in the Valley have been meeting since October to petition city councils to drop the one-size-fits-all mandates and instead allow businesses that have taken certain COVID precautions more leniency in capacity limits.
“I suggest every business write a letter to the City Council this week explaining what you think is a reasonable protocol based on your business type … and what you repudiate relative to mandates and why,” Gravity Fitness owner Oliver Whitcomb wrote to his fellow business owners last week. “Some of you probably need little to no protocols, others may need to be more creative.”
Whitcomb and his fellow business owners have also created alternative signage regarding mask wearing for their businesses. It encourages people to be familiar with the mask ordinance but lets non-masked patrons know they won’t be bullied and it would be assumed by staff they had a medical reason not to abide by the mandate.
School Snafu
Meanwhile, at least one Hailey school has had to revert back to fully online learning due to COVID. Alturas Elementary has been hit with too many staff quarantines to continue the hybrid model the district has adopted since the beginning of the school year. The hybrid model alternates which students are on campus during the week. Students do in-person learning just twice a week, but teachers and staff are there four days a week.
According to the district’s COVID dashboard update the day after the announcement, only one staff member had an active case of COVID-19 at Alturas, but 10 staff and 15 students were under quarantine. Those numbers can change weekly.
Districtwide there are 21 cases between students and staff. The largest number of quarantines are happening at Carey Elementary School and Wood River High School, with 39 and 32 cases, respectively.