If You Get Sick Cross Road Will Be There For You 24/7

Cross Road Medical Center Offers Help To Coronavirus Patients  Call Cross Road at 822-3203      24 Hours A Day, Seven Days A Wee...


Cross Road Medical Center

Offers Help To Coronavirus Patients 

Call Cross Road at 822-3203 
  
24 Hours A Day, Seven Days A Week. "We're Here. We're Here All The Time...– Lari Maize 

Cross Road Medical Center In Glennallen, Alaska (Photo, Cross Road)

THIS STORY WAS WRITTEN MARCH 23RD. Please Note that Things Might Change.  Call Ahead to 822-3203.

The Copper River Country Journal talked with Lari Maize, Clinical Manager and Director of Nursing at Cross Road Medical Center in Glennallen about plans and procedures in anticipation of cornavirus patients in the Copper Valley.


About Cross Road Medical Center
The Medical Center is located in downtown Glennallen. It currently has 5 nurses, 2 nurse practitioners and 2 physician's assistants. It does not have any doctors. The medical center is open 24 hours a day. You can call them at 822-3203 any time, day or night, with questions. If you intend to come in, please call so they can prepare for you.

What If You Feel Like You're Coming Down With Something?
If you are "symptomatic" with coronavirus and you are not seriously ill from it
the medical center says you should stay home. Says Lari Maize at Cross Road:
"Stay away from people as much as possible for a 14-day period."

What Is "Symptomatic?"
Cross Road says: "The main thing they've noticed is a fever over 100.3. If you don't have a thermometer, you can tell if you're just not feeling good. The main symptoms they've noticed are fever, a cough, and shortness of breath."

What Do You Do While Weathering the Virus At Home?


"At home, wash your hands. You can wear a mask if you have it at home. Isolate yourself as much as possible in another room." However, it's a difficult task. "It's hard to get around exposure in closed, confined areas like that."

Some People Get Extremely Ill
Cross Road says: "If you're sick we definitely want you to come in." Always call the medical center at 822-3203 first.

Keeping Everybody Safe
As we all know, medical personnel and EMT's are on the front lines for getting contaminated in this illness, so we, the public, have to watch out for their safety too – as well as our own. The procedure is shown below for keeping you isolated from others when you arrive at Cross Road for help.

How To Come To The Clinic
First, call the clinic at 822-3203. Somebody will talk with you on the phone, day or night, helping assess the situation. If they do tell you to come in, they'll direct you on the best way to enter the building.The front door will be locked, but there will be directions on a sign there telling you where to go. Everybody coming to the hospital will be directed to the emergency entrance under the portico. A nurse will come to the door. Her job is to help figure out which entrance you should use.

"There are two entrances. One is specifically for coronavirus symptoms, and the other for regular patients with other medical issues." At the emergency entrance door, says Lari Maize, a specific entry procedure will be followed.  "The nurse will assess them. Will they need to be isolated?"

"Ordinary" patients with the typical problems we usually think about when going to the clinic – chest pains, or a broken wrist for example – will come into the regular emergency room entrance.  Potential coronavirus patients will use a second, more secure entrance.

Fire Doors Separate Patients
There are two entrances because the medical center is using their fire doors inside the building to keep any possible virus patients away from other patients and the rest of the clinic.
The main clinic is kept "clean" of coronavirus, and you'll use the emergency room entrance for this side if your symptoms are not virus-related.


The other side of the fire doors is the coronavirus section, and you'll use the second, special entrance, for this side. Remember, there are signs and nurse assistance when you arrive, to help you avoid confusion.

Cross Road Has Tests, Masks, Oxygen & A Ventilator
Cross Road Medical Center is not a hospital. However, the following equipment was available as of March 23rd, 2020:



Tests: Coronavirus testing has been a major issue, and as of March 23rd, finding tests anywhere in America was still a problem. However, Cross Road did have testing capacity. "The provider would see the patient and determine, Does the patient need the tests?" said Lari Maize. "The providers are only testing the people who are symptomatic or very high risk. It's up to the providers to decide how to use the limited number that they have."



By April 14th, Cross Road had procured three of the new "15 minute" testing kits – one for the Glennallen Clinic, one for Cross Road's Delta Junction Clinic, and one for the Clinic at Grizzly Lake on the Tok Cutoff. Cross Road joined CRNA with rapid testing, dramatically increasing the Copper Valley's ability to quickly respond to the virus. Debbie Davey at Cross Road cautioned: "We're encouraging people to call before they come." There are a limited number of fast-testing tests, and prescreening is required. Please call 822-3203 by phone for the main Glennallen Cross Road Clinic. Call DeDe Duntze at the Grizzly Lake Cross Road Clinic at 822-3937. If you have severe symptoms, please come into the urgent care door of Cross Road in Glennallen.
 
Masks: As of March 23rd, the clinic did have enough masks to protect staff and patients.

Oxygen cannulas: These devices help people breathe, and Cross Road has them available. Nasal cannulas are those flexible oxygen supply tubes with the little nose inserts you see in doctor shows on TV.

Ventilator: Cross Road has a ventilator. Ventilators are used to assist very ill patients in breathing.

If You Need Further Help...
If you are very ill and require evacuation by air, "We would call the hospital, get their approval and medevac them into Anchorage or Mat-Su..."
Medevac To A City Hospital (Crossroad) 


Somebody To Talk With
This can be a very difficult time, especially since there's a possibility of very serious illness.

Cross Road takes its mission of providing both medical and emotional support very seriously. Lari Maize told the Copper River Country Journal: "I know people are scared. It's a pretty scarey time to go through. We're here. We're here all the time, 24 hours, 7 days a week. They can call. We talk with them. We pray with them, sometimes numerous times a night when someone calls."

Their number is 822-3203.  


www.countryjournal2020.com

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