PHOENIX (May 28, 2020) – As Arizona's largest health care provider, Banner Health works tirelessly to put best practices in place to ensure the safety of patients and health care workers across its six-state service area. Recent changes have been implemented at all Banner facilities to further those efforts. Many of the changes will be noticed the moment a patient arrives at a hospital, urgent care or other location that provides health services. For instance, some facilities are utilizing thermal cameras at designated entrances to detect fevers in staff, patients and others.
Whether they need to see their primary care doctor, have an elective surgery, or receive any other routine or urgent health service, patients can rest assured that Banner's taken all the steps to protect them and those they love.
"It's very important to make sure our health care workers and our patients remain safe during the COVID-19 pandemic," said Marjorie Bessel, MD, chief clinical officer at Banner Health. "We want to make sure that there is no spread of disease, so we've taken a lot of extra steps for that."
Some of those recent changes include:
- 100% of our Banner physicians can see patients remotely via telehealth video
- Virtual waiting rooms are available for all telehealth and in-person physician office visits
- Patients, employees and visitors at all Banner locations are continuously masked
- All employees and visitors are screened for COVID-19 symptoms before entering facilities
- Lobbies and high-touch surfaces are cleaned and disinfected frequently
- Anyone scheduled for surgery has a COVID-19 test prior to surgery
- Special entrances for surgical patients to avoid lobbies or waiting areas with other patients
- Reconfigured waiting-room layouts at Banner clinics to maintain proper social distancing
- Banner Urgent Care and Banner Imaging have non-respiratory locations where patients with no fever or respiratory symptoms can receive care
- At Banner hospitals, all COVID-19 patients are kept in separate and strictly isolated quarters
"The term is called cohorting," Dr. Bessel said, describing how Banner keeps COVID-19 patients separated from other patient groups. "Those individuals who either have COVID-19 or are highly suspected of having COVID-19 are cared for in a separate area of our emergency departments, a separate area of our hospitals. Even during clinics, they're having separate hours for patients that come with those types of fevers or respiratory illnesses. In between, we're doing exquisite cleaning."
As one of the largest nonprofit health care systems in the country, the team at Banner Health is committed to ensuring all Banner locations are a safe place for care. Headquartered in Phoenix, Banner Health owns and operates 28 acute-care hospitals and an array of other services, including Banner Imaging, Banner Telehealth and Banner Urgent Care. Team members are dedicated to protecting the health and safety of patients, be it a routine checkup, elective surgery or an urgent health service. Waiting room and employee workstation layouts maintain proper social distancing; screenings are conducted at hospital entrances to verify that all employees and visitors are well; and, all Banner physicians are equipped to visit patients remotely. Learn more about Banner's commitment to safety at bannerhealth.com/safecare.
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Editors' note: B-roll and interviews available at https://bannerhealth.mediaroom.com/safecarekit.