Dear Community Member,
In our continuing efforts to address COVID-19, Brattleboro Memorial Hospital has implemented the following changes:
Entrances and Exits
– Effective Monday, March 23, the Richards Building entrances will be closed to all traffic.
All patients and visitors will be required to enter the hospital through the Main Entrance, where they will be greeted and screened.
The Emergency Room entrance will remain open. All other entrances are locked for entry. All exit doors required for fire code regulation will remain available.
New Outpatient Testing Site
– We now have a specific testing site set-up for the outpatient practices. The process continues as it has:
if you are experiencing a fever and cough, please call your primary care provider.
Your provider will determine if a test needs to take place and, if so, will make those arrangements (time and location). No test will be administered without an order from you primary care provider. The Emergency Department (ED) will continue to test for ED patients only.
If you do not have a primary care provider, please call our Centralized Scheduling Department (Monday-Friday, 8:00am-5:00pm) at 802-251-8777 to arrange for an acute appointment.
Visitors
–
Effective immediately,
no visitors will be allowed into Brattleboro Memorial Hospital.
Exceptions are at the discretion of Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and are as follows:
- One parent or guardian for a patient under the age of 18
- One birthing partner for a patient in labor
- One person at a time for a hospice or end of life patient
- One clergy member for an end of life patient
- One caretaker for a completely dependent patient
Outpatient Lab Service
– This service will be relocated to the Pavilion Building in the Main Hospital effective Monday, March 23. Doing so will reduce patient travel distance from our Main Entrance due to closure of the Richards Building entrances (see above).
Elective Procedures
– Beginning Monday, March 23, 2020,
all non-essential elective procedures will be postponed.
All essential procedures, emergency and urgent, will be performed. All patients affected by this change will be contacted to reschedule.
Telehealth Appointments
– We are working on rapidly implementing telehealth capabilities for outpatient Medical Group visits.
Food Services
– We will close the Lobby Café effective Monday, March 23. The Maple View Cafeteria is only open to employees, patients, and visitors. Please do not visit BMH for dining purposes only.
Suspended Services
–
Effective immediately we have suspended the following services:
- Volunteer Services
- Cardiac Rehabilitation Services
- Student Rotations
Ronald Read Pavilion
– Construction of the Ronald Read Pavilion has been postponed until June 2020. We will evaluate the start date based upon pandemic status.
Internal and External Meetings
– All outside meetings and support groups as well as non-essential internal meetings have been canceled.
The changes we have made, and will continue to make, will prepare us for the challenges ahead. I encourage you to visit the websites below for continuous updates and operational changes.
