Adena Officials Give Health Update During Conference with Chillicothe Mayor

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As cases of Covid-19 have increased in recent weeks, Chillicothe Mayor Luke Feeney hosted a Facebook Live broadcast Friday morning featuring leading officials of Adena Health System for an update on the System’s management of the pandemic.

The hour long conversation included Adena CEO Jeff Graham, Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Kirk Tucker and Chief Nursing Officer Molly Grooms.

Graham described as people have gotten back to a sense of normalcy going to the store an other public places, “you would never probably imagine that the pandemic is as bad as it is in the walls of our hospital.”

“In the last week… at the PACCAR Medical Education Center, we’ve had double lines, clear out and around Hospital Road, of people getting tested” explained Graham as more families are dealing with an increase of concern over the delta and omicron variants.

Tucker added the importance of receiving vaccination for Covid-19. and gave a sampling from the current hospitalization numbers. As of Friday, among those at Adena, only nine of 72 patients are vaccinated. Tucker says in addition, there are six patients in the intensive care unit on ventilators, none of them had been vaccinated.

“You can be fully vaccinated, boosted, gotten anyone one of the three vaccines available… can you get omicron? Yes. Absolutely” Tucker added “The difference is that instead of it being something that has the potential to progress with landing you in the ER because your oxygen levels begin to fall and your body can no longer oxygenate itself… you’re likely to be at home for five days with a headache, a fever, a cough, stuffy nose, sore throat, muscle aches and pains, fatigue and then it breaks and goes away.” Tucker says the same is true with the delta variant.

Adena has been seeing up to 180 patients infected with Covid per day. Grooms suggests if someone is experiencing symptoms, the testing center at the PACCAR MEC is the place to go. “Depending on the severity of how you’re feeling, that’s where you should start.” They’re currently testing Monday through Friday and Adena is receiving assistance from the Ohio National Guard which will help AHS extend the hours for the testing center. “We still have a lot of access within our own primary care” Grooms added. “We have a lot of support in our Urgent Cares for this testing… an if you feel you have the level of acuity and you need to see the emergency room, I’m not discouraging that from happening at all.”

Hear the entire conversation by clicking on the photo above.