COVID-19: MetroHealth Announces Changes to Operations

To better serve and protect both patients and health care workers during the COVID-19 outbreak, The MetroHealth System is announcing the following changes:

• Effective Monday, all elective surgeries are being postponed. We have begun reaching out to patients to inform them.
• Our eye clinics at Middleburg Heights, Old Brooklyn, Bedford, Brecksville, Buckeye and Broadway will close. For now, we will maintain our eye clinics at main campus, Parma, Cleveland Heights and West 150th Street – but we will postpone routine eye exams and make other adjustments to protect patients and staff.
• We will close our dental clinics at main campus, Old Brooklyn campus and Rocky River. Our Broadway dental clinic and the main campus oral surgery clinic will remain open.
• We are asking people to confirm any outpatient appointments before coming to a hospital or health center. We are converting many appointments scheduled for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to telehealth visits.
• Beginning Monday, there will be no in-person pick-ups at our pharmacies. We will deliver prescriptions by courier or mail.
• There will be no in-person visitation in our adult intensive care units without a doctor’s order. We are making provisions for limited video contacts with patients and providers.

We again are cautioning people who suspect they may have COVID-19 symptoms or need a test for the virus not to go to an emergency room or urgent care. Instead, they should call 440-59-COVID (440-592-6843) for a screening.

As a reminder, to limit exposure to COVID-19, we have made changes to our visitation policies. The new procedures can be found here.

Sunday afternoon, March 15, MetroHealth President and CEO Akram Boutros, MD, FACHE, addressed some of the health system’s preparations and offered suggestions for how everyone can keep themselves and the community safer.