What is Sauk Prairie Healthcare doing to protect me from COVID-19 when I have surgery?

As Sauk Prairie Healthcare begins providing non-emergent surgeries again, it’s important that patients know what additional precautions are in place to ensure their safety:

• Every surgical patient will be tested for COVID-19 before surgery.
• Surgical patients are only allowed one visitor to accompany them.
• All patients and visitors wear masks.
• In surgery, staff wear masks and face shields.
• Patients are in private rooms.
• Additional advanced cleaning procedures occur between surgical cases.

If there is an emergency surgery in which it’s not possible to test for COVID-19, that patient will be cared for as if they could be COVID-19 positive. Additional precautions will be taken to protect other patients and staff:

• Staff wear PAPRs or N95 masks with full face shield protection, liquid-impervious gowns, and gloves.
• After surgery, the patient would stay in a negative air-flow room, which ensures the air cannot flow to other patient rooms.
• A limited number of staff care for the patient with COVID-19. Staff put on and remove personal protective equipment (PPE) after every interaction.