Beshear: Health services to reopen; Family Medical Center to offer COVID-19 testing
NC GAZETTE / WBRT RADIO
STAFF REPORT
Wednesday, April 22, 2020 — Gov. Andy Beshear announced that portions of the state’s healthcare services sector will re-open for business starting Monday, April 27th.
The services that will re-open will allow for diagnostic and radiology testing, as well as non-urgent, emergent, in-person office and ambulatory visits.
Gov. Beshear said further easing of restrictions will follow healthcare.
“Health care is a good and important place to start some of our reopening,” he said Wednesday.
Beshear said the state will go through three phases in dealing with coronavirus: sacrifice, planning and patience and perseverance. The Governor said now we are in the planning and patience phase.
“Whether it is shuttering a business temporarily, or if it’s that you’re not going to work right now because of what has happened with this virus,” he said. “Whether it is changes to your life, your children not going to school, we have shown that we can pass the test of sacrifice.”
The Governor’s phased-in reopening of healthcare services closely follows President Donald Trump’s administration’s Guidelines for Reopening America.
Beshear emphasized that further opening of the state’s businesses will require a massive increase in the availability of COVID-19 testing across the state.
LOCAL TESTING AVAILABLE. Hardin Memorial Hospital announced Wednesday that it will begin offering COVID-19 testing at three of its outpatient locations — including the HMH Bardstown Medical Center, 3615 E. John Rowan in Bardstown.
The other two testing sites will be located at the Respiratory Viral Evaluation Clinic on Woodland Drive in Elizabethtown, and the HMH Meade County Family Medicine in Brandenburg.
Due to the anticipated demand, testing is by appointment only. Testing is only available to patients referred by a healthcare provider or via the HMH Patient Symptom Hotline, (270) 979-7777.
Increased testing at outpatient locations will allow convenient access for patients with symptoms and minimize influxes at the HMH emergency department while maintaining physical distancing.
Patients experiencing respiratory symptoms are encouraged to call the HMH Patient Symptom Hotline, open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nurses will field questions and direct patients to the appropriate level of care.
Hotline use should be limited to those with symptoms or those with a loved one experiencing symptoms, such as a fever, cough or shortness of breath.
Beshear announced that the testing program now underway by Kroger is being expanded from its current sites — Pikeville, Somerset, Madisonville and Paducah — to include Kroger locations in Louisville, Lexington, Bowling Green and Owensboro.
To register for a free COVID-19 test, visit krogerhealth.com/covidtesting.
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