They are averaging 250 calls a day and they are working to meet the needs of the community.
The call center established by Mercy Health Saint Rita’s and Lima Memorial Health System is adjusting staffing and hours at the community call center for coronavirus questions. At this time, four people are answering phones asking questions to determine if the individual should be forwarded on to an evaluation center. Each call is about 3-minutes long and the call load varies throughout the day.
Chief Nursing Officer at Mercy Health-St. Rita’s, Cory Werts says, “When you call in what I am asking the public to do is be open, have a great conversation with the provider/nurse on the other end. Let us walk you through those evaluation steps so that if you need another level of care, we can help you find that other level of care.’
Jackie Spence, Executive Director of Nursing at Lima Memorial Health System adds, “It’s changing every day, and when I say every day I use that word loosely because we are trying to stay on top of the mandates and government and the CDC changes. We do know the community has a lot of questions. They are afraid and the whole purpose of this center is to help ease their anxiety.”
The call center number is 419-226-9000. The calls will ring into a bank of 4 phones at this time. They are keeping an eye on the volume of calls to adjust staffing as need. Calls will be taken from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily including this Saturday and Sunday.
Health officials want people to know if they are sent on to an evaluation center they will be not be tested for COVID-19 but other respiratory type illness to rule them out.
