Methodist Health System reducing some procedures amid rising COVID-19 cases

As health care providers and administrators, we always evaluate our processes daily to ensure we have the resources needed to care for those who need us. With more patients seeking care and projections of exponential growth of COVID-19 patients due to the Delta variant, Methodist Hospital and Methodist Women’s Hospital will be pausing some elective surgeries beginning Monday, Aug. 23. We are already experiencing a surge of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and have implemented overflow processes.

This is a difficult, but necessary decision. The COVID-19 patients being admitted are younger and may be sicker than those previously cared for. We anticipate longer hospital stays for these patients.

• Surgeries and procedures requiring an overnight stay that can be delayed for 30 days will be evaluated prior to scheduling. Outpatient surgeries/procedures are not restricted at this time.

• Urgent and emergent surgeries/procedures will continue for those patients where a delay of 30 days or more would cause serious harm to life and limb (e.g. cancer patients, stroke, etc.).

This is a very fluid situation and is evaluated every day and multiple times a day. In the event the surge slows or plateaus and we have capacity, the postponed cases may be scheduled sooner.

We are committed to caring for our community and will do what is necessary to make that happen. We ask our community to do what they can to support healthcare and our workers during this challenging time.