“Beaumont Health has cared for more COVID-19 patients than any other health system in the state. We've proudly responded to the community's needs during this pandemic and reconfigured our hospitals and redeployed staff to provide high quality and safe care. With the number of COVID-19 patients seeking care at Beaumont decreasing a bit recently, it is now appropriate to begin re-opening the Wayne campus in phases as we carefully prepare for another potential COVID-19 surge,” Beaumont Health Chief Operating Officer Carolyn Wilson said.
The current plan includes the reopening of the Emergency Center during phase one along with obstetrical services that were offered prior to converting the Wayne facility to a COVID-19 exclusive treatment facility. Also scheduled to be reopening during the first phase of resuming operations are both observation and inpatient medical surgical beds and support services including the pharmacy, laboratory, food services and environmental services, according to a prepared statement.
In addition, some outpatient surgical and diagnostic services, including the infusion center, will be offered, in compliance with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's Executive Orders, to meet the time sensitive needs of patients.
Phase II will add more inpatient and critical care capacity as Beaumont carefully reconfigures critical staffing and resource needs across the organization as COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 volumes change.
“Many factors that could affect health care are beyond Beaumont's control, such as government orders and the public's willingness to observe social distancing protocols. Therefore, all plans are subject to change,” a hospital spokesman noted.
“As additional services come online and are approved by regulators, Beaumont will notify the community,” officials concluded.
There was no comment about the possibility of returning any of the 2,375 laid off employees to work or the reinstatement of 450 full-time positions the health care facility eliminated last week in response to the impact of the coronavirus on hospital revenue across the entire system. With the elimination of all elective and non-emergency surgeries and treatments, revenue at the hospitals has been drastically reduced, according to hospital management.
Beaumont had laid off several Wayne hospital employees and transferred others to hospitals within the system.
“As we have said from the beginning, we are going to reopen our Beaumont Hospital Wayne Campus. We are still working through the details and timing and we will share more information as soon as we can,” the hospital said in a prepared statement.
Last week, Beaumont Health system CEO John Fox said last week that “Temporary laid off employees can apply for enhanced unemployment benefits available through state and federal programs. As additional medical services are brought back online at all our campuses, including Wayne, employees could be asked to return to their roles. These individuals can also continue to participate in their Beaumont health insurance and other benefits at their current employee rates during the layoff period.”
