CARBONDALE (WSIL) -- Some surgeries at SIH hospitals are set to resume on May 11.
SIH President and CEO Rex Budde says his facilities will start with a goal of 25 percent of normal capacity.
State health officials will require COVID-19 testing for all surgery patients, and as well.
Budde says keeping staff and patients safe is the top priority.
"We're specifically going to target patients that we have a high probability of not needing an inpatient stay of any kind--even a 24 hour stay. Because we want to keep the beds open in case there is a spike of COVID inpatient activity."
Budde says if everything goes well surgeries at SIH may return to normal capacity in about six weeks after a slow ramp up.
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Budde tells News 3 WSIL stocking up on supplies could look dramatically different down the road for area health care providers because of COVID-19:
"This is a game changer for us. What we considered to be the right levels in the past are half of what we'll probably keep in the future."
Budde says SIH providers are in decent shape when it comes to PPE, but supply chains have not caught up with demand.
"The people who have made masks and brought those kinds of things in--the folks who have figured out on their 3D printers how to make the screens and such--you can't thank them enough. It really came at a really critical time," Budde said.
