Premier Health to postpone elective surgeries amid high COVID hospitalizations

DAYTON — Premier Health has joined with other major hospital networks in the region and will postpone all elective surgeries that require overnight hospitalizations starting Monday.

>>RELATED: Kettering Health pauses elective surgeries due to COVID hospitalizations, ‘strain’ on health systems

“Effective Monday, Jan. 10, Premier Health will postpone any non-essential procedure/surgery that requires an overnight stay until after Jan. 31, 2022, to help preserve critical hospital capacity for our patients and the community,” a network spokesperson said in a statement Friday afternoon.

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“All essential procedures and surgeries will continue, as will all procedures and surgeries for patients who do not require an overnight stay. If you have not already done so, please get vaccinated against COVID-19 and take other precautions, (such as masking and social distancing) whenever possible to help us in caring for the community. ” the spokesperson said.

Premier Health is the latest major hospital network in the region to postpone elective procedures, joining Kettering Health that announced a pause this week and Reid Health which paused in December.

A Kettering Health spokesperson said the pause in their network was necessary due to “strain on multiple health systems” caused by the increase in COVID hospitalizations and is necessary to “maintain safety and high-quality care.”

Sarah Hackenbracht, President and CEO of the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association, told News Center 7 earlier this week that we are in “one of the most difficult parts of the pandemic” in the Dayton area. She added that when elective procedures were postponed two years ago, it was a “very, very different dynamic and scenario.”

“That was a requirement that came down from the governor and the state administration to really help hospitals open up bed space in the physical infrastructure in our hospitals and preserve the PPE we had available. At this point in time our hospitals are having to make those difficult decisions themselves,” Hackenbracht said.

Hackenbracht said that when hospitals are full with COVID-19 patients, they have a difficult time receiving patients in their emergency departments.

We’ll continue to update this story as we learn more.

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