Valley View Health Center is accepting new patients Monday afternoon in Centralia.
Doctor Stephen Hennessy, with Valley View Health Center, conducts a drive-up test last week in Centralia.
John Garcia, left, with Valley View Health Center, talks about the process for drive-up testing as Doctor Stephen Hennessy conducts a test late last month.
John Garcia, with Valley View Health Center, talks about the process for drive-up testing last month in Centralia.
Valley View Health Center, at its several locations in Lewis County, is taking new patients while modifying operations to provide care over the phone or through telehealth video calls when possible. They’re also keeping the Centralia location open seven days a week.
“We’re finding this balance between wanting to comply with the governor’s ‘stay at home order’ — allowing the public to do the same — and providing as much healthcare as we can,” said Valley View Health Center CEO Gaelon Spradley. “It’s become mission-critical to provide telehealth services to as many patients as we can.”
Healthcare organizations are exempt from the stay at home order, as are other businesses deemed essential.
Valley View Health Center provides medical, dental and behavioral health services. There are two entrances to the clinic — one for patients with respiratory symptoms and one for all other patients. The clinic is only taking emergency dental appointments at this time.
“We want to make sure that our patients, especially our older patients, are being safe and staying home but are still in contact with their healthcare provider, and if it’s necessary to come to the office we have a safe process for them,” said Spradley.
Spradley said they have not seen a spike in the number of patients coming into the clinic since the COVID-19 outbreak and that they have actually seen a drastic decline in their patients. If the health centers do not see about 15 patients a day it will affect Valley View’s ability to keep staff employed, he added.
“We are trying our best to find the right balance almost on a daily basis of keeping our doors open for the people who need to come into the clinic, but promoting our telehealth services, which we started doing three weeks ago,” said Spradley.
Spradley said that many of the conversations he has been having recently are about testing and testing supplies.
Valley View is looking for donations of personal protective equipment.
“There are two components that bring us anxiety and that’s the availability of test supplies and test kits. We’re struggling to get enough to test everybody that is symptomatic and high-risk. The other is protective equipment for our employees to make it safe for them to provide care,” said Spradley.
The Onalaska Valley View Health Center is temporarily closed until further notice because of poor internet connection and the Pe Ell location is closed from March 23 to March 31.
“What makes Valley View unique is that we are in a rural environment where there aren’t very many primary care alternatives. We’ve got patients who are low-income and elderly and we’ve also got patients who have great insurance and reliable income and they come to us simply because there aren’t a ton of other options,” said Spradley.
Spradley said that Valley View Health Center has a large capacity to care for patients at this time and that he wants everyone to know that they are still available.
“It’s actually alarming. I’ve got a spreadsheet that we update daily of every mask, gown and face shield that is on Valley View’s sight. It is a level of inventory that would’ve seemed ridiculous a month ago,” said Spradley.
For more information, go to www.vvhc.org.
