CLEVELAND — Editor's Note: The above video aired on Wednesday, November 11
Cleveland Clinic is continuing to enact measures to balance the surge of COVID-19 patients while maintaining operations.
The Clinic announced on Friday that it will extend its hold on nonessential surgeries that require hospital beds through November 20, but only for procedures that can be safely rescheduled.
"It is important to understand that our hospitals remain safe and open to care for our community. Urgent and emergent surgeries — such as heart, cancer and neurological cases — and outpatient surgeries will continue as scheduled," the Clinic stated in its release.
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On Wednesday, Cleveland Clinic announced it was postponing nonessential surgical cases that require an inpatient hospital stay at most Cleveland Clinic Ohio hospitals for Friday, Nov. 13, and Monday, Nov. 16. Nonessential surgeries will continue at Lutheran Hospital, along with all pediatric procedures.
Beginning Friday, outpatient surgical care at Marymount Hospital Surgery Center will also be suspended until the end of November. Patients will be redirected to another Cleveland Clinic location for procedures.
Caregivers will be redeployed to help to expand the number of beds for COVID-19 patients. Read the Clinic's full statement below:
"As the numbers of COVID-19 cases are rising dramatically in Northeast Ohio, Cleveland Clinic continues to evolve our practices.
We are now seeing the highest numbers of patients with COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. In order to provide the safest and highest quality care of patients, we are proactively extending our postponement of nonessential surgical cases that require an inpatient stay through Friday, November 20th. We will reevaluate our scheduled surgical cases on an ongoing basis.
It is important to understand that our hospitals remain safe and open to care for our community. Urgent and emergent surgeries — such as heart, cancer and neurological cases — and outpatient surgeries will continue as scheduled.
We are extremely concerned about the rise in cases in our community, and we urge the public to limit the spread of the virus by remaining vigilant in wearing masks, social distancing, and washing your hands."