COOKEVILLE – With the safety of our patients, staff and community being our highest priority during the coronavirus pandemic, Cookeville Regional Medical Center (CRMC) has decided to defer all elective surgeries and procedures as of Wednesday, March 25 for the next eight weeks.
“Before we made this decision, we carefully evaluated the CDC and CMS guidance, readiness of our facility, personnel, capacity and supply availability as well as assessed community transmission occurring in our region,” said Paul Korth, CRMC CEO. “We feel like this is the right thing to do at this time.”
Elective surgery means “scheduled”, as opposed to an emergency surgery.
“We want to assure the public that an elective case does not mean their care isn’t important,” added Korth. “In fact, much of our elective care cannot be delayed and needs to be done. Those cases will proceed as normal. The basic guideline that our surgeons will use to determine if a case needs to be done is whether the procedure can wait for eight weeks without being detrimental to the patient’s health.”
