By Dr. Ken Dietrich
Greetings Grays Harbor citizens.
My name is Dr. Ken Dietrich. I am the chief medical officer at Summit Pacific Medical Center in Elma. I commonly get asked general health questions, or meanings of different medical terms, etc. And I have been thinking that perhaps a monthly column — where you have an opportunity to bring forward questions or topics you might be curious about — might be useful. So, we will give it a go and learn if this idea is valuable.
For a brief background, I moved to Grays Harbor County five years ago and live outside Elma. Since that time, I have been working at Summit Pacific in the emergency department, on the inpatient service and administration. Prior to moving to the Elma area, I worked as a pediatric intensive care physician at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital beginning in 1990. I love the county, the people, the environment, and even the weather. I wished we had moved here 20 years ago. Well enough about me.
As you are all intimately aware, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in significant changes in what we do and how we do them. None of us thought we would ever be walking around with masks on, intentionally staying away from one another, etc. But here we are. COVID has also resulted in an unexpected cultural change related to work.
Throughout my working life I never missed a day of work because of illness. This doesn’t mean I wasn’t ill. I occasionally was. But like most Americans I would go to work because I didn’t want to let anyone down, or I didn’t want someone else to have to cover for me, or, or, or. Now with the risk of COVID, we are asked to stay at home from work if we have any signs or symptoms of an infection. But this is a radical change from the way we have done things for years.
Yet, it is good advice.
All these infections are spread from person to person. If we all stay home when we have symptoms, the infection spread would be limited. It would make a big difference. Going forward, I believe hope we will adopt this practice of staying home and self-quarantine whenever we have symptoms of an infection, even after COVID. I pledge to and I hope you will, too.
To have your questions considered for the column, please email marketing@sp-mc.org
