(Madera, CA) – On Tuesday, March 17, Valley Children’s Healthcare announced in order to minimize the threat of COVID-19 transmission, the organization is delaying elective surgeries and non-urgent appointments.
This decision aligns with recommendations from the American College of Surgeons and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines promoting social distancing. These cancellations include elective procedures, non-urgent outpatient appointments to the hospital, non-urgent primary care wellness visits, and lab and imaging appointments that can be safely delayed.
Patient families are being contacted to inform families about these delays.
These appointment and procedure delays are just one of the policy changes Valley Children’s has implemented in efforts to minimize traffic in and out of their healthcare facilities. These policy changes are as follows:
- At this time, visitors will be limited to parents/guardians and direct caregivers of patients. Other visitors and non-essential vendors will not be allowed in our facilities.
- In our emergency department, only one parent/guardian is allowed in with their child.
- Anyone who comes into our healthcare facilities is screened with questions regarding current state of health and recent travel history.
- Elective surgeries and non-urgent appointments have been delayed.
- All hospital-sponsored events have been postponed or cancelled.
Families with questions regarding these policies or COVID-19 as a whole can contact Valley Children’s COVID-19 hotline, available from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. to help answer any questions the community may have.
COVID-19 Hotline
Toll free number: 888-286-9336
Local number: 559-353-3333