{"id":806685,"date":"2020-04-22T14:16:09","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T20:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=382105"},"modified":"2020-04-22T14:16:09","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T20:16:09","slug":"st-anthony-hospital-ceo-addresses-lack-of-testing-in-summit-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/st-anthony-hospital-ceo-addresses-lack-of-testing-in-summit-county\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Anthony hospital CEO addresses lack of testing in Summit County"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/hospital-sdn-031720-1-1024x683.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/hospital-sdn-031720-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/hospital-sdn-031720-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/hospital-sdn-031720-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/hospital-sdn-031720-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/hospital-sdn-031720-1-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><figcaption><strong>The sign at St. Anthony Summit Medical Center in Frisco on March 17.<\/strong><br \/><em>Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>BRECKENRIDGE \u2014 At the Breckenridge Town Council meeting Tuesday night, St. Anthony Summit Medical Center CEO Lee Boyles addressed the lack of testing for the new coronavirus in Summit County and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/summit-county-partners-with-vail-health-to-dramatically-expand-local-coronavirus-testing\/\">subsequent aid from Vail Health<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The meeting was tense as council members were skeptical of the hospital\u2019s efforts, with one council member calling Centura\u2019s performance \u201csubpar.\u201d Mayor Eric Mamula said the council had prepared a letter to Centura, which owns the local hospital, expressing frustrations about testing.<\/p>\n<p>Boyles said that since the beginning of the outbreak, St. Anthony has been preparing for the worst. He said the hospital has \u201cheld steady\u201d through the pandemic, never becoming overwhelmed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve always had the staff and, thank God, the (personal protective equipment) and supplies to take care of anybody who hits our doors or be able to handle those surges, which we just haven\u2019t seen,\u201d Boyles said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\">\n<div class=\"row sd-donation sd-donation-mobile p-0\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/SDN-logo-white-1.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/SDN-logo-white-1.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/sdn-banner-paypal.jpg)\" class=\"col-xl-8 p-3 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/donate\/?utm_source=article&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=donation&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=mid-article\">Donate<\/a><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>As of Tuesday, the hospital had tested 81 patients who have come into the emergency department, 32 of which have tested positive for the new coronavirus. He said 16 of the 81 patients who were tested were transferred to Denver-area hospitals. Of those 16, nine tested positive.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He noted that transfers to Denver-area hospitals are done because the novel coronavirus is a respiratory illness, and it\u2019s in the patients\u2019 best interest to be cared for at an elevation lower than 9,000 feet. He said the nine COVID-19 patients who were transferred required ventilation but did \u201cextremely well\u201d once they got to a lower elevation.<\/p>\n<p>As for coronavirus testing, Boyles said the hospital always has followed state and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testing guidelines.&nbsp;He added that the hospital always has had the ability to test frontline workers and first responders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve also conserved those tests knowing that if we ever did get a surge or we ever became overwhelmed, we\u2019re going to need tests in hand to start testing people,\u201d Boyles said. \u201cSo I think that\u2019s been our main prerogative of we\u2019ve prepared for the worst, that has not come, and now we\u2019re in a situation where the testing is kind of flipped to now we need this mass testing throughout the community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Until now, Boyles said the hospital has not had the capability to perform mass testing.<\/p>\n<p>Council member Jeffrey Bergeron noted that Eagle County has tested more than 2,000 people whereas Summit County has tested fewer than 300 people.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t understand why St. Anthony of Centura can\u2019t get ahold of tests,\u201d Bergeron said. \u201cIs Vail Health that much more powerful in the market?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Boyles said he does not know why Vail Health has so much more testing capacity. He said Vail Health is using a saline flush test, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/doctor-says-peak-of-covid-19-cases-in-summit-county-is-a-few-weeks-away\/\">which the Summit Community Care Clinic also uses<\/a>, while St. Anthony\u2019s has stuck with the swab test.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI cannot tell you how Vail Health has that many tests,\u201d Boyles said. \u201cI cannot tell you the quality of those tests, what medium they\u2019re using or anything else. All I know is what we have secured as far as testing is the best quality tests we can get our hands on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Boyles said St. Anthony now has the ability to test anyone who is symptomatic. Starting Wednesday, the hospital opened a testing clinic in the Vista Professional Building by Summit Middle School that he said likely will test 20-30 people per day. The center will be open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays. Boyles said he hopes to open the center on weekends as soon as possible and that hours might be extended based on demand. The Stadium Medical mobile clinic also will continue to operate.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Council member Gary Gallagher said he was more interested in discussing ways to move forward with the economy rather than what St. Anthony has done.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe all know in order to responsibly move from phase one to phase two from an economic point of view, we\u2019ve got to be able to start testing much more broadly,\u201d Gallagher said.<\/p>\n<p>Gallagher went on to express his frustrations with the hospital.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCentura is going to bury this economy,\u201d Gallagher said.&nbsp;\u201c\u2026 It\u2019s going to get very hard for the businesses here in Breckenridge. I don\u2019t think you guys are doing enough, and I think it\u2019s really going to hurt your fundraising ability going forward because I think the performance of Centura today within Summit County has been subpar.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Council member Dick Carleton shared concerns he has heard from community members that some people who have had severe symptoms have not been tested. Boyles said the hospital has tested anyone who is symptomatic for the past one to two weeks, but Carleton countered that he knows an individual who is symptomatic and was referred to the mobile clinic, but three days later has not been tested.<\/p>\n<p>Dennis Kuhn, a new council member who was sworn in Tuesday, asked Boyles what Centura could do to be a good partner to Summit County in addition to opening up the new testing center.<\/p>\n<p>Boyles said mass testing is the best way the hospital can help, but he said he doesn\u2019t think that testing beyond symptomatic patients would be a good use of resources. He said he believes recommendations like social distancing and facial coverings have worked, and he noted that physicians in Denver are studying antibody testing, which he said would be a \u201cgame changer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Council members also discussed the reopening of the county. Mamula said he thinks the county is in a good place, but he said he is fearful of day-trippers from the Front Range spreading the virus.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/st-anthony-hospital-ceo-addresses-lack-of-testing-in-summit-county\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The sign at St. Anthony Summit Medical Center in Frisco on March 17.Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com BRECKENRIDGE \u2014 At the Breckenridge Town Council meeting Tuesday night, St. Anthony Summit Medical Center CEO Lee Boyles addressed the lack of testing for the new coronavirus in Summit County and subsequent aid from Vail Health. The meeting was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-806685","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-13 07:07:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806685\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}