GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Dr. Joshua Kooistra recalls the moment the coronavirus pandemic became very real.
"I think as a physician when we were watching our colleagues in the Detroit area and realizing this was in the state of Michigan. And seeing what they were battling on that side of the state, that's when it hit home that we needed to be very well prepared," says Kooistra who works at Spectrum Health.
So far West Michigan has not seen the surge in COVID patients the way Detroit has and that's one of the reasons local hospitals like Spectrum Health are beginning to change how they operate.
"Our operations have been put in place to mitigate the risk of COVID 19. And for some of our patients, to delay some procedures that initially we recommended delaying we now are re-evaluating and saying if they wait too long that'll be a bigger risk to the patient than the safe care we can provide today," says Kooistra.
Life-saving procedures never stopped during the pandemic but now increased hospital capacity means they can do more.
"Some spinal procedures we are performing now that we didn't perform initially, we are looking at biopsies, and all of our radiographic studies as well," says Kooistra.
If you have questions about a specific procedure, Kooistra recommends you ask your physician but he does warn that restrictions remain in place.
"At this time we do have visitor restrictions in place even for our surgical patients, right now one visitor per surgical patient," says Kooistra.
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