Adaptability, compassion key at GH Community Hospital

By Kat Bryant

Grays Harbor News Group

Grays Harbor Community Hospital’s nurses have been making major changes to protect both patients and staff in the time of COVID-19.

“The staff has done a remarkable job in just helping to get things set up, working with us on the protocols, following all the guidelines that we’ve been putting into place,” said Melanie Brandt, the hospital’s chief nursing officer. “It’s been incredible what we would call the ‘new normal’ of everyday life here at the hospital.”

Months ago, when the virus first appeared in the United States, GHCH started collecting information from local departments of health and the Washington State Hospitals Association, she said. Since the first Grays Harbor case was confirmed, the hospital’s patient care and general safety protocols have been continually evolving as officials work with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on guidelines for personal protective equipment, patient isolation and more.

“We handle isolation patients all the time. We’ve handled patients that were here to rule out TB, for example,” said Brandt. “So we already had a lot of the preliminary steps in place. (But) we didn’t know a lot about (COVID-19), so we were continually putting new protocols in place.”

Some specific adaptations involve “negative pressure” rooms, the specialized isolation units used to prevent cross-contamination in cases of contagious diseases. GHCH has eight of these rooms, and they are being used as needed to house patients who have or are being tested for COVID-19.

“We’ve put a lot of different processes in place for our negative pressure rooms with the patients — seeing how the nurse takes care of the patient, what they have to put on for proper equipment before they go into the room, how we handle patients that need to be on a ventilator, what kind of breathing treatments they have,” said Brandt.

The hospital has seen five patients who tested positive for COVID-19 and ruled out 135 suspected cases since this all began, she said. No deaths related to the virus have yet been recorded in Grays Harbor County, and no new cases have been confirmed here since April 12.

“On any given day, we’ve had anywhere from one to 11 suspected patients,” said Brandt. “It just depends on the provider when they’re assessing the patient, determining if they meet the guidelines for needing to be tested based on symptoms.

“And that’s been evolving as well,” she added. “We’ve recently had the Department of Health add more symptoms to our list.”

Other challenges have included changing the protocols for cleaning a room after a patient is discharged. “We had to keep a room empty for a while until we could go in and do a ‘terminal clean,’ as we call it,” said Brandt. “We also had to learn how we can conserve our personal protective equipment — meaning gowns, gloves, masks — by how we utilize them.”

As an overall safety measure, stations were set up a month ago at both main hospital doors, where nurses screen everyone entering. Some drive-up testing has been done for those suspecting they have COVID-19. There’s also a triage line (360-537-5100) for people to ask questions or find out if their symptoms warrant a hospital visit.

“I think the message now is we want to make sure that people in our community know they can come to us for care and it will be safe care, and that way they’re not creating more harm for themselves,” said Brandt.

“We’ve started seeing sicker patients coming in because they’ve been afraid to come to the hospital, afraid they’re going to get the virus while they’re here,” she added. “We certainly don’t want them to wait until the last minute. We are here to take care of them. There’s a lot of people that have chronic conditions, and if they let things go they’re going to be more sick.”

Brandt oversees 155 Registered Nurses and 31 Certified Nursing Assistants at GHCH. She said her primary role is to be available to them to talk or to answer questions — and joining them on their daily rounds is her favorite part of the day.

Sometimes, she said, great ideas come out of those interactions. For example, one day a staff member asked if they could make devices available to allow isolated patients to visit their families via FaceTime.

“We were able to get tablets in place and have people FaceTiming,” she said. “That was a suggestion from the staff, and we were able to implement that — and that just speaks volumes for what they’re looking at and trying to do,” she said.

“It’s just amazing to watch people with the compassion they have when they’re caring for any kind of patient that comes into our facility.”

Melanie Brandt, right, chief nursing officer of Grays Harbor Community Hospital, consults with Registered Nurse Kristin Jennings.

GHCH nurse Chrissy Boice is well-suited to handle drive-up COVID-19 testing.

Nurse Chris Stallings retrieves items from a supply room at GHCH.

Nurse Trish Cornett wheels a patient through the halls at GHCH.

Melanie Brandt, left, chief nursing officer of Grays Harbor Community Hospital, takes a turn at one of the hospital’s entrance screening stations with Registered Nurse Chrissy Boice.