SMMC’s Dr. Felix Holiday and Michael Sargeant at the Medical Mobile Pavilion opposite SMMC.
CAY HILL--In keeping the general public of St. Maarten and surrounding islands informed about the hospital’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic so far, St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC) released a two minute video on Friday, April 10 via its social media channels.
The video documents the hospital’s mitigating efforts as well as the addition of capacity with extra isolation rooms and ICU beds, which the Outbreak Management Team (OMT) of SMMC has created in response to the COVID-19 health crisis, said SMMC on Friday.
The video features Dr. Felix Holiday, SMMC’s Medical Director and Chairman of the OMT, who explains the progress made thus far.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, SMMC said it has been taking several preventative measures to limit the possible exposure to the virus, such as the ceasing of elective medical procedures and consultations, doing pre-screening at the main entrances of the hospital and the Care Complex. They have also suspended patient visiting hours, frozen the travel of medical specialists and added isolation and intensive care unit (ICU) capacity to name a few.
The Medical/Surgical Department has been restructured by hermetically sealing off the ward and designating it for the care of acute COVID-19 patients only. This has expanded the amount of isolation beds from four to 14 inside of the hospital of which six beds are for ICU care with each having its own ventilator.
In the video, Dr. Felix Holiday shows the Mobile Medical Pavilion that is being finalized in a joint effort with the Government of St. Maarten and the Dutch goverment, which will be used for medium care for COVID-19 suspected and confirmed cases and will also be used for patient screening purposes for anyone showing flu like symptoms. The Medical Pavilion houses seven double patient rooms and support staff rooms.
The ICU tent that arrived on St. Maarten recently through the support of the Dutch Government has six beds, each with its own ventilator. The ICU tent will be transformed into an ICU-container, a so-called “Hospitainer”, in the near future which is more storm resilient.
Dr. Holiday thanked all staff, especially the front line staff for their continued hard work and dedication, “As we go through these trying times together, we at SMMC want to thank and salute all of our hard-working staff, especially our front line staff, the Ambulance Department, Collective Prevention Services (CPS), the St. Maarten Laboratory Services (SLS), the Health Care Laboratory St. Maarten (HCLS) and the Government of St. Maarten as it takes unimaginable courage, strength and dedication to continue to serve the people of St. Maarten, Saba and Statia. Stay safe, remain resilient and be strong,” Dr. Holiday concluded.
The production of the video was made possible by funds received from The World Bank, for which SMMC expressed its gratitude and can be viewed via SMMC’s YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn social media channels:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cm7llJWzdhM&feature=youtu.be
