March 27th Update

Idaho Falls has still not seen its first positive case of COVID-19 in the community. However, our team fully expects that to change and we are using the time we have now to prepare.

For the past several weeks, our team has been meeting regularly to discuss the pandemic, readying our response plans and updating policies at the hospital to keep patients, employees and visitors safe. This week, we took our preparations one step further and started to practice mock COVID-19 scenarios throughout different departments in the hospital.

So far, other hospitals across the country who practiced similar drills have been more effective at responding when they needed to treat real patients with COVID-19. Our efforts now will allow us to have better outcomes for patients in our community.

The mock scenarios were conducted by Idaho Falls Community Hospital’s education department and infection control/quality assurance team. Each scenario was designed to help all of our team members test our response plans, practice potential events they may face and ensure they all had the proper protective gear available and ready to keep them safe. The scenarios also give us the opportunity to learn in low-risk environments, so we are fully ready when the pandemic hits our community.

Mock scenarios were conducted in the emergency department, medical surgical floor, pre-op and intensive care unit. Each scenario lasted approximately 30 minutes and was designed to be as real as possible.

At the end of this week, our team is feeling more ready than ever before to take care of our community and see all of us through this pandemic.

Please remember, we are still open and treating patients. It is safe to come to the hospital. If you have a medical emergency, our team is standing by and ready to care for you 24/7.