Old Women’s Hospital and Wesley Long to treat COVID-19 patients
By Yasmine Regester, Peacemaker Staff Writer / April 16, 2020
Some of Greensboro’s COVID-19 frontline heroes. Wesley Long Hospital nursing staff during a break: Simone Hall, left, Jessica Nays, Zoe Suggs, Michelle Catalan and Kiera Weaver. Photo by Ivan S. Cutler/Carolina Peacemaker
As of April 15, the Guilford County Department of Public Health (GCDPH) reported 137 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and ten related deaths in the county.
In order to treat the rising number of positive COVID-19 cases, Cone Health has moved to treat patients out of the old Women’s Hospital on Green Valley Road.
Wesley Long Hospital and the former Cone Health Women’s Hospital in Greensboro will be temporarily converted to care for severely ill COVID-19 patients. Cone Health’s leaders say they hope these actions will help meet the anticipated increase in volume of infected patients in the days and weeks ahead.
“By continuing to strengthen our communities’ efforts to stay at home and practice social distancing, we have a chance to minimize the spread of COVID-19 in our region and across the state. This would limit sickness and save lives, and help to avoid overwhelming our hospitals, physicians, nurses and other caregivers,” said Terry Akin, CEO, Cone Health. “That said, we are proactively realigning our hospital capacity and staffing to care for larger numbers of infected patients in the days and weeks ahead.”
On April 13, the former Women’s Hospital (now called the “Green Valley campus”) opened to patients. This site will care for patients who are transferred from other sites or admitted directly by their physician. The site will not have an emergency department. On April 20, Wesley Long Hospital on Friendly Avenue will transition to a hospital for patients with symptoms or a diagnosis of COVID-19.
Moses Cone Hospital on North Church Street will shift focus to providing care for non-COVID-19 patients. Cone Health is advising people in Alamance and Rockingham counties to utilize Alamance Regional Medical Center, and Annie Penn Hospital for emergency care (whether related to COVID-19 or otherwise).
People who need evaluation for COVID-19 symptoms are advised to access a virtual visit through the Cone Health website, call their primary physician for care and advice, or directly visit the Wesley Long Hospital Emergency Department.
Cone Health will continue to deliver mental health services for people at The Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital Emergency Department if medically unstable, and at Behavioral Health Hospital, if medically stable. Maternity services have been reorganized to serve patients from both the Cone Health Center for Women’s Healthcare and Cone Health Center for Maternal Fetal Care, on the second floor of the LeBauer HealthCare building at 520 N. Elam Ave.
According to GCDPH data, African Americans comprise 20 percent of the reported COVID-19 deaths, while Whites make up 80 percent. Thirty-one percent of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 are people between the ages of 25-39; however, the virus has claimed the lives of 62.5 percent of people between the ages of 65-79 and 37.5 percent of people 80 years old and up in Guilford County.
As of April 15, 2020, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services reported 5,123 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 117 deaths across the state.
