Everyone entering Charlton, West 5th and King Campuses will be screened for COVID-19 effective Tuesday, March 17 at 6 a.m. We are restricting access to these buildings by locking doors and designating specific entrance points.

We are also checking temperatures of both staff/physicians and patients/visitors as part of the COVID-19 screening process when entering the building. We are using no-touch thermometers.

If the patient or visitor meets the screening criteria for COVID-19, they will be directed to a secondary screening area for further assessment.

Thank you for your understanding during our ongoing efforts to protect the public, patients, staff and physicians from the potential transmission of the COVID-19 virus.

The following entrances will be the only points of entry and exit for patients and visitors, per Campus:

During screening, you will be asked the following questions:

• Do you have a fever 37.8 degrees or greater?
• Do you have new onset cough or worsening cough or difficulty breathing?
• Do you have one or more of the following – new or worsening symptoms? (not attributed to any other cause)
  • Sore throat, difficulty swallowing
  • Headache, Runny nose, nasal congestion
  • Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain
  • Muscle aches, chills, unexplained fatigue/malaise
  • Loss of sense of smell, or taste or both
  • Conjunctivitis (Pink eye) 
• Have you been in contact with someone with probable or confirmed COVID19? (Without wearing appropriate PPE)
• In those 70 years or older are you experiencing any of the following:
  • Delirium, acute cognitive decline
  • Unexplained or increased number of falls
  • Worsening of chronic conditions
• Have you traveled outside of Canada in the last 14 days?
   

You can get through screening faster by using our online screening tool at sjhhscreening.com right before entering the hospital.

Our staff and physicians follow meticulous hand hygiene practices. Click here to learn more about hand hygiene at St. Joe’s.

St. Joe’s will be providing masks to all outpatients and all visitors entering the hospital, effective Tuesday, May 12th. This does not apply to inpatients. As always we are following guidance and direction from the Ministry of Health to ensure all are protected.

Click here for information on how to properly wear a mask.

We are using environmental cues around the hospital to encourage physical distancing, including signage and roping off every other chair in waiting rooms and using tape on the floor to encourage distancing in line-ups. 

Seating areas in public areas are limited and discouraged.

Staff and physicians are replacing in-person group meetings with virtual meetings using teleconferences and video conferencing when possible, and have been asked not to attend in-person conferences or speaking presentations for work. Conferences, corporate events and corporate social gatherings have been cancelled or postponed.

Our Environmental Services (EVS) department has implemented additional cleaning and disinfection procedures to ensure a clean and safe environment for our patients, staff and physicians.

• Increased EVS staffing for all common areas and high-volume units
• All patient and staff screening stations disinfected nightly
• New disinfection technologies and products implemented, including electrostatic disinfection

In line with provincial guidance and direction St. Joe’s has been able to implement daily screening and surveillance of our inpatients. The objective is early detection and early intervention of new or worsening symptoms. Given the emerging data that COVID-19 may be an ongoing issue till a vaccine is available, this screening is an important patient safety step in our overall goal to drive quality of care. The new process includes actively screening each patient each shift and determining the need for testing/swabbing. This change is fully supported by a new medical directive enabling nurses to initiate quick primary testing. Subsequent screening resulting in potential further testing will be discussed with the treatment team.