HSHS St. Joseph’s Hospital Highland resumes offering elective procedures

Hospital taking precautions to ensure safety and continuing current visitor restrictions

In accordance with Gov. JB Pritzker modified stay-at-home order through May that allows certain elective surgeries for non-life-threatening conditions, HSHS St. Joseph’s Hospital Highland plans to resume elective surgeries early next week.

Those who had previously scheduled surgical procedures that were delayed due to the Illinois Stay-at-Home order during April will be contacted by their surgeon’s office to reschedule their surgery in upcoming weeks/months. Once scheduled, the hospital will contact patients for to be registered and to gather other insurance and medical history information.

“We have not offered non-emergent procedures because of the Governor’s order for several weeks and there is quite a backlog of cases at each of our HSHS Illinois hospitals,” said HSHS Illinois Division Chief Nursing Executive Allison Paul. “We encourage patients to contact your doctor for more information about when you can get your procedure scheduled in the coming weeks.”

HSHS St. Joseph’s Hospital Highland will be following all Illinois Department of Public Health guidelines to ensure the safety of patients and staff. Included in these IDPH guidelines that the hospital will be following are:

Patients preparing for an elective procedure must have a negative COVID-19 test on file within 72 hours of a scheduled procedure and must self-quarantine after being tested until the day of surgery to limit their risk of exposure. If you have a surgery or procedure scheduled, you will receive instructions from your provider or the hospital on next steps. If applicable, patients will be informed during a pre-surgical call the most convenient place to undergo this testing. St. Joseph’s will only be testing patients scheduled for procedures at an HSHS facility.

The patient’s one support person that will be allowed to accompany them the day of their surgery will be screened.

The hospital’s current visitor restrictions will still apply to minimize traffic within the hospital to keep patients and the community safe.

Additionally, all patients and visitors will be required to wear a mask at all times while at the hospital. They may bring their own from home or will be given one at the hospital. The patient and support person will also be screened as they enter the hospital the day of the surgery.

Chief Nursing Officer Teresa Cornelius shared, “During the unknown early stages of COVID-19 in the nation and our communities many hospitals, like ours, cancelled elective surgeries to ensure the hospital had the capacity to care for these patients and prepare for a surge. We are grateful that we can now begin to provide elective surgeries again to our area residents,” she said. “St. Joseph’s has established processes in place and we are working closely with our surgeons and other specialists to schedule procedures as soon as safely possible. We recognize there are many patients who are seeking care and we will do everything we can to accommodate requests for our care in a timely manner, while also ensuring we maintain a safe hospital environment for all patients we serve.”

For more information about HSHS St. Joseph’s Hospital, visit stjosephshighland.org.