Berkeley Medical Center resumed full surgery operations Monday, with eight of its 10 operating rooms reopened. Flooding in late May temporarily suspended non-emergency services.
Patients seeking surgical care in the Eastern Panhandle can now return to the operating rooms of the Berkeley Medical Center in Martinsburg.
In late May, a construction mishap caused extensive flooding in the facility’s 10 inpatient operating rooms, forcing their indefinite closure and temporarily suspending non-emergency medical services. Patients were referred to other nearby hospitals like the Jefferson Medical Center in the town of Ranson.
But WVU Medicine, which operates the facility, announced Monday that Berkeley Medical has now resumed its full surgical operations.
Two of the facility’s operating rooms reopened June 28, two more reopened July 3, and an additional four operating rooms reopened July 15.
The operating rooms reopened after an inspection from the West Virginia Department of Health last week, WVU Medicine said in a Monday press release.
The hospital will continue to work with other hospitals to coordinate patient services in the weeks ahead, WVU Medicine said.
After severe flooding in late May, Berkeley Medical Center will reopen its operating rooms in early July. The facility will also receive two new mobile operating rooms to ease the transition.
The Berkeley Medical Center will be “totally back up and running” by July 14 after flooding closed the facility’s operating rooms last month, according to Albert Wright, president of the West Virginia University (WVU) Health System.
Wright said the Martinsburg medical facility, operated by WVU Medicine, was undergoing construction on its second floor in late May.
During the construction, parts of the facility’s first floor — home to its 10 inpatient operating rooms — were exposed to the elements.
Wright said the “construction mishap” caused a “breach between the second floor of their building and the first floor,” which “allowed water to penetrate into that operating room floor.”
“It was a man-made breach by accident,” he said.
The facility was flooded with dirty rainwater, which caused significant damage. In the weeks since the flooding, construction teams have had to demolish and replace significant portions of the operating rooms to ensure they meet medical standards.
“Operating rooms are really some of the most sterile areas you have in a hospital. We have to make sure that they’re clean and free from infection,” Wright said.
Despite the damages, Wright said teams on site have made fast progress on the repairs.
By July 3, WVU Medicine anticipates that five of the 10 operating rooms will be operational again. By July 14, Wright said the remaining five operating rooms will be back as well.
“When I first saw the flooding, if you would have told me we’d be back up and running by the middle of July, I would have been thrilled,” Wright said. “That’s a compliment to the work that’s been done.”
Berkeley Medical Center has referred most patients with non-emergency needs to nearby medical facilities in Berkeley and Jefferson counties in the weeks following the flooding incident.
Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Wright said Berkeley Medical Center will also receive two mobile operating rooms July 3 to aid the facility’s transition back to full operations.
In the weeks after the flooding, Berkeley Medical Center temporarily only admitted trauma, obstetric and emergency surgery cases.
Patients with other needs were referred to the facility’s Outpatient Surgery Center or nearby facilities like the Jefferson Medical Center, which has three operating rooms.
Wright said WVU Medicine expanded hours of operation for some medical facilities to meet increased demand.
Still, the sudden bump in patient need put a strain on nearby facilities, Wright said. Plus, some patients had specific care requirements that surrounding facilities had difficulty meeting.
To meet additional needs, Wright said the Berkeley Medical Center also referred patients to facilities farther away, including Morgantown and Winchester, Virginia.
While some of those referrals pushed patients outside of the WVU Health System, Wright said ongoing coordination between medical facilities made referrals like these easier.
“One of the good things about health care is, even though we sometimes compete with other systems for patients, when any health care facilities are in a challenging situation, everybody steps up for good patient care,” he said.
While the flooding might have put a strain on medical facilities in Berkeley and Jefferson counties, Wright said he was “so proud” of staff members at the hospitals for picking up the slack.
“The team has really done a good job of making sure patients receive the care they need,” he said. “I’m proud of how they [have] come through this, but I’ll also be glad when this is all over and behind us.”
Full operations at the Berkeley Medical Center in Martinsburg are slated to resume in early July, following works of construction work.
Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
WVU Medicine’s Berkeley Medical Center has temporarily suspended use of its operating rooms due to flooding damage to the facility’s first floor.
WVU Medicine’s Berkeley Medical Center indefinitely suspended use of its operating rooms Tuesday.
The announcement followed severe flooding that wrought damage across the facility’s first floor, according to a Tuesday press release.
The facility will temporarily only admit trauma, obstetric and emergency surgery cases. It will refer patients with other medical needs to its Outpatient Surgery Center or the Jefferson Medical Center, which is located roughly 20 miles away.
To evaluate patient needs and coordinate facility referrals, Berkeley Medical Center has opened a new command center.
A timeline for the facility’s repair has not yet been announced.
WVU Medicine is accepting new applications for its diabetes self-management program based in Martinsburg at the Berkeley Medical Center. The program runs for six weeks in February and March.
WVU Medicine is accepting new applications for its diabetes management program based in Martinsburg. The program helps participants learn strategies for independently managing their condition.
During the program, participants will explore topics like healthy eating, exercise, stress management, meal preparation, nutrition and healthcare access, according to a press release.
Dana DeJarnett, health promotion coordinator for WVU Medicine, said the self-management program also helps participants develop problem-solving and action-planning skills, which makes program lessons more effective.
“It may not sound like anything specific to diabetes, but it really helps you focus on what are the most important things you need to take care of,” she said. “The things that you need to know to manage your health on a day-to-day basis.”
As part of the program, participants will develop action plans each week, incorporating new habits they hope to implement and community resources they are going to integrate into their daily routine.
WVU Medicine’s Berkeley Medical Center and Jefferson Medical Center assumed oversight of the program last year, running it in partnership with Quality Insights.
But originally the program was overseen by the Berkeley-Morgan County Health Department, funding it through a state grant beginning in 2013.
From DeJarnett’s perspective, the program is valuable as a supplemental resource for individuals already receiving primary care for their diabetes.
“It helps you take control of your health. It helps you learn that there are steps that you can take, and that you can have control of,” DeJarnett said. “And it doesn’t take away from what you’re doing what your physician tells you to do.”
WVU Medicine’s new program will run six weeks, meeting every Thursday from 9 to 11:30 a.m. from Feb. 22 to March 29 at the Dorothy McCormack Center, located at 2000 Foundation Way in Martinsburg.
The program is free but requires advance registration. Individuals living with or caring for someone with diabetes are eligible to apply for the program through Feb. 14.
Prospective participants can register or seek further information by contacting DeJarnett at dana.dejarnett@wvumedicine.org.
WVU Medicine’s Berkeley and Jefferson Medical Centers are hosting remote workshops to help teach Eastern Panhandle locals how to treat chronic diseases and pain.
WVU Medicine’s Berkeley and Jefferson Medical Centers are hosting remote workshops to help teach Eastern Panhandle locals how to treat chronic diseases and pain.
The program is called Living Well and it teaches how to take care of chronic conditions like pain, heart disease, diabetes, anxiety and depression on a day-to-day basis.
Promotion coordinator Dana DeJarnett said the program allows for each person to find out what works for them, with the social aspect playing a big part in treatment.
“You’re going to meet other people who are kind of going through the same things as you are and you can learn from others about how they cope with it,” DeJarnett said.
The program covers broader techniques to help participants take control of their health. These include communication with health care providers, basic nutrition and physical activity exercises. It also helps participants come up with their own ways to help cope with chronic pain.
“It could be things like relaxation exercises,” DeJarnett said. “Distraction can be things like thinking of different types of birds or how you use your mind for distraction, but then there’s also ways to be active to take your mind off of what you’re going through. So you might organize your paperwork, or listen to music or read a book.”
The chronic disease workshops are scheduled every Tuesday from Feb. 28 through April 4 over Zoom. The chronic pain workshops are in-person at the Charles Town Library every Wednesday from March 1 to April 5.
To register, call 304-264-1287, ext. 31814 or email dana.dejarnett@wvumedicine.org for more information.
Visitors will be allowed between noon and 7:00 p.m. at both Berkeley and Jefferson Medical Centers. They must be screened upon arrival, wear a mask and remain in a patients’ room for the duration of the visit. Patients are also only allowed one adult visitor per day.
Visitors are still not permitted on the Behavioral Health Unit.
“Our ambulatory surgery, outpatient services, physician clinics and urgent care centers will continue to discourage visitors with some exceptions,” said Samantha Richards, WVU Medicine East interim president and CEO, in a press release. “These visitation changes were made after a thorough review of the current COVID-19 pandemic in our area, and our continued response efforts keeping staff, patients and their families at the forefront of our considerations.”
Meanwhile, other hospitals in West Virginia, including Boone Memorial in Madison, have reinstated a no visitor policy.
Similarly, some nursing homes in West Virginia have also had to reinstate visitor restrictions after outbreaks of COVID-19. Most recently, Princeton Health Care Center in Mercer County, currently has a confirmed total of at least 30 COVID-19 cases, according to Gov. Jim Justice’s office.
Visitation restrictions at nursing homes were lifted on June 17 in West Virginia, but only if a facility has had no cases of COVID-19 for the 14 consecutive day period following that date.
