Direct Line from Steve Edwards 4/22/22

Apr. 22, 2022

COVID-19 update

Our COVID-19 numbers continue to be low and encouraging: As of Friday morning, we have six COVID-positive patients, four of whom remain infectious. Our seven-day rolling positivity rate stands at 2.93%.

We are monitoring the BA.2.12 and 2.12.1 variants and we know a BA.2 wave remains likely. Vaccination and boosters are still key to reducing risk of severe disease and I remain cautiously hopeful.

As we continue to see encouraging numbers, our Incident Command leadership relaxed masking requirements this week for fully vaccinated staff in private settings where they are only around their colleagues.

Fully vaccinated staff members are now able to remove masks when they are away from patient care areas and are not in the presence of patients or visitors.

With our high employee vaccination rate, our teams are at much lower risk than the general public. That’s why our experts are comfortable with relaxing masking when staff members are together in private areas.

Our staff will continue to mask in the presence of patients and visitors because masks help protect those who are at risk. We continue to require that patients and visitors mask upon entering any of our health care facilities. You can see our communication to staff at this link.

Employee Appreciation Day

For the first time since the pandemic began, we will host an in-person Employee Appreciation Day at our six main hospital campuses on Wednesday, May 11. Our leadership team will serve free meals for all shifts at our hospitals. I am glad to see the recognition event return, and I know our employees will appreciate a day of celebration for all of their outstanding work.

Celebrating our volunteers

We held events celebrating our CoxHealth volunteers across our campuses this week. I was honored to attend Wednesday afternoon’s event at Cox South and recognize our volunteers for their thousands of hours of service. I couldn’t be more grateful for the service our volunteers provide our patients and our organization.

A reporter’s experience at Cox Branson

Reporter Jason Wert of the Branson Tri-Lakes News spent Easter at Cox Medical Center Branson, where his son was treated for complications from a spider bite.

Wert shared his experience in a column published Tuesday, noting that “the nursing team at Cox has shown my son nothing but amazing attention and care.” I appreciate his recognition of the kind of care our teams provide each day. You can see his experience here.

Voice of the patient

From feedback at Cox Monett: “I am very proud of our new hometown medical facilities. Love those who work there as well.”