7/10/20 CEO Update: COVID-19

Jackson Hole has become a noticeably busier place over the past week, which is good news for many people that depend on summer business to make a living. Across St. John’s Health, we have also seen a dramatic increase in people requiring care for all kinds of services, including minor and major illness as well as injuries typical of summer recreation. We have been fortunate to have the staff and other resources to respond to all of these needs, while also expanding access to care. We’ve opened our clinic at Teton Village for summer urgent care needs for the first time, and we’ve introduced a new surgery by Dr. Martin Trott for sleep apnea, a common sleep disorder. We are operating at our new normal, which means we are taking care of “business as usual” in the COVID-19 pandemic environment. This requires extra attention and extra resources. I am so proud of the entire team and our physicians for stepping up to this challenge to meet the community’s needs.

While we have been fortunate not to have had any individuals require hospitalization for COVID-19 in recent days, we have begun to again be very busy screening patients for COVID-19 due to more positive cases in the community and the need to keep the disease from spreading.

Because there are more people in the community right now and more positive cases, St. John’s is again flexing the testing criteria so that we can ensure testing capacity to respond to people who are sick. I know the shift in criteria can be confusing. Because the demand for tests and the access to testing supplies/laboratories will continue to fluctuate, I am asking for your understanding as we adjust the criteria over time to respond to the current situation. We are taking extra care to keep our COVID webpage current in this dynamic situation, and I encourage you to look there if you have questions. If you meet the criteria described, our staff on the hotline will be able to assist you with testing.

Paul Beaupré, MD, CEO

St. John’s Health

For more COVID-19 information at St. John's Health, visit our dedicated coronavirus info webpages or sign up with your email.

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Media contact:

Karen Connelly, Chief Communications Officer, kconnelly@stjohns.health, 307.739.7380