Spectrum Health Ludington Hospital Bi-Weekly Update, June 16, 2020.

Spectrum Health Ludington Hospital Bi-Weekly Update, June 16, 2020.

The following was submitted by Spectrum Health Ludington Hospital:
If you have specific questions about hospital operations, please contact the hospital directly at 231-843-2591. The hospital does not respond to questions asked on the MCP or OCP Facebook pages

LUDINGTON — Spectrum Health Ludington Hospital is transitioning to a bi-weekly community update regarding activities and current information. Some content will be related to the COVID-19 pandemic, as new information or changes become available. Other content will be general information related to the Ludington Hospital.

For the latest COVID-19 information, we encourage you to visit spectrumhealth.org/covid-19. The dashboard below reflects the 16-county region served by Spectrum Health. Local information can be found on the District #10 Health Department web site at www.dhd10.org.
As of Monday, June 15, 2020:

COVID-19 positive cases. There have been 32 confirmed cases in Mason County, 107 in Oceana County, 11 in Manistee County, and six in Lake County. Confirmed cases will be reported through the District Health Department. There have been 2,179 specimens collected at Ludington Hospital, with 764 of those tested in the Ludington Hospital laboratory and the remainder tested at the Grand Rapids Spectrum Health laboratory. Of those tested, 52 have had a positive result, which is 2.39% of the total specimens collected.

New Executive Order effective June 12, 2020. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed Executive Order 2020-120, allowing for overnight camps and allowing K-12 school sports and extracurricular activities to resume. Social distancing rules must be followed as well as any previous orders that are not specifically amended.

The hospital main entrance is open. The main entrance at the south side of Spectrum Health Ludington Hospital is open. Hand sanitizer and masks are required and are available at the entrance. Patients may wear their own masks to the hospital but will be asked to change into one of ours upon arrival and to apply hand sanitizer.

Requiring masks in the hospital setting.  There is much that is still not known about COVID-19. However, Spectrum Health is committed to evidence-based practice in all aspects of the care provided at its facilities. At this time, infectious disease experts across the state and nation recommend masks as a means of preventing the spread of COVID-19. Therefore, at this time, masks are required to be worn within all Spectrum Health locations. If a medical condition prevents you from wearing a mask and you need to come to the hospital for testing or an appointment, please have a written note from your primary care provider indicating the medical condition for which a mask exception is given. These exceptions will be honored with written notification. Get more information about the usefulness of masks here:

Northwest Region Market Leade /President update.  Final interviews with two candidates have been held for the market leader position, and a selection and offer is expected to be made by the end of June. The Northwest region is comprised of a four-county area including Mason, Oceana, Newaygo and Muskegon counties. Ludington Hospital and Gerber Memorial hospital in Fremont make up the two Spectrum Health regional hospitals within the Northwest market, along with all of the Spectrum Health affiliated clinics in the four-county region. The regional market leader will serve as president of both regional hospitals and have executive oversight of all regional locations.

Pritesh Lohar, MD (medical doctor) is new medical oncologist at Ludington Hospital. Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, the Spectrum Health Ludington Hospital Cancer Center has remained open and serving patients. Dr. Carol Peterson was kind enough to delay her retirement several times until we could bring on a new medical oncologist. We welcomed Dr. Pritesh Lohar on March 30, 2020. Dr. Lohar received his medical degree from Baroda Medical College in Vadodara, India. He completed his Internal Medicine residency followed by a Hematology/Oncology fellowship from State University New York in Syracuse, NY. He is board certified in Internal Medicine through the American Board of Internal Medicine. Find out more at https://findadoctor.spectrumhealth.org/physician/profile/6559. We thank Dr. Peterson for her steadfast and unwavering commitment to patients and wish her all the best in her retirement.