Intermountain is postponing all non-urgent procedures requiring a hospital admission

By

Patrick Jones

|

COVID-19 cases have continued to significantly increase in Utah—resulting in consistently high volumes in hospital ICUs and acute care units across our system. Our teams are overwhelmed and we’re running out of staffed beds for patients. We are at a critical point where we must take further action to support our teams and the safety of our patients.

Intermountain is postponing all non-urgent surgeries and procedures requiring a hospital admission or postoperative inpatient monitoring in our trauma and community hospitals. This postponement starts September 15 and will last for several weeks. We will evaluate the situation on an ongoing basis. When feasible, consolidation of remaining surgeries or procedures may take place to help free up surgical teams to be redeployed in our hospitals. Non-urgent surgeries and procedures are those that can be reasonably postponed and do not involve a medical emergency.

The trauma and community hospitals where all non-urgent surgeries and procedures requiring a hospital admission will be postponed are:

  • Logan Regional
  • McKay-Dee (Ogden)
  • Layton
  • LDS Hospital (Salt Lake)
  • Intermountain Medical Center (Murray)
  • Riverton
  • Alta View (Sandy)
  • Park City
  • American Fork
  • Utah Valley (Provo)
  • Spanish Fork
  • Cedar City
  • St. George

Rural hospitals, TOSH, and Primary Children’s will continue to do non-urgent surgeries and procedures requiring a hospital admission. These facilities may postpone some cases as needed depending on circumstances.

While this pause in surgeries may create challenges for some patients, it is a necessary and appropriate step given the sharp spike in hospitalizations for patients with COVID-19. Any patient affected by the postponements will be directly notified by telephone. Postponed procedures will be rescheduled after the surge subsides. Intermountain will continue to provide care for urgent situations and emergency patients as it always does.

While this pause in surgeries may create challenges for some patients, it is a necessary and appropriate step given the sharp spike in hospitalizations for patients with COVID-19.
This press release was provided by Intermountain Healthcare.