My dad needs a procedure in a hospital. ETA - Memorial Hermann

He is vaccinated and has had a booster - he is 82. He also just had covid, tested positive on December 31. Mild-moderate symptoms.

Here is what the hospital just told my mom:

They have a new policy for covid tests. If you tested positive before Jan. 1st, you have to be tested again because the assumption is that it is Delta. [my dad's] test was Dec 31. So he is scheduled for a test Friday. Results go to the hospital. If it is negative, we won't hear anything. If it is positive the procedure is rescheduled and he would be quarantined for 10 days. Not sure how they enforce that. None of this makes any sense. She said we should know by Sat.

My hospital is the same way about giving birth. They don't care if you're more then 10 days out from your infection (Dec 18 for me). If you test positive, you have to go through all the protocols regardless because you could possibly be contagious with a second infection. Obviously they can't keep the baby in but they can make it really miserable coming out.

Praying for negative tests for your family!

I tested positive at Hermann during the admissions process last Thursday

Had surgery 24 hrs later. A few procedural changes because of the C+, but wasn't canceled or quarantined after day 3 when I was released to gi home

Btw: just tested positive again today

88planoAg said:

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My dad needs a procedure in a hospital.

He is vaccinated and has had a booster - he is 82. He also just had covid, tested positive on December 31. Mild-moderate symptoms.

Here is what the hospital just told my mom:

They have a new policy for covid tests. If you tested positive before Jan. 1st, you have to be tested again because the assumption is that it is Delta. [my dad's] test was Dec 31. So he is scheduled for a test Friday. Results go to the hospital. If it is negative, we won't hear anything. If it is positive the procedure is rescheduled and he would be quarantined for 10 days. Not sure how they enforce that. None of this makes any sense. She said we should know by Sat.

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They can't enforce a quarantine. If by chance he testes positive, nod, smile, say see you in 10 days and go completely about your life. They won't have a person following him around or anything.


Just one of those deals where they needed a deadline or hard line to start. That part I get. My problem is that eventually we cannot keep living like this for covid. It has lessoned in severity over all. Honestly feel the quarantining period needs to be removed. Life is about risks and chances. Eventually even the hardest line takers on covid mitigation and protocol will figure this out and end it all.

That was the exact same policy for us 3 weeks ago. Even dumber was that we could have one visitor at a time. No test/Pre screen needed, however I had to step outside the room when the visitor came in. Then once they left I could go back in. This was in Plano for reference.

My wife had our son Jan-2 at BSW in Fort Worth. Neither of us were tested surprisingly as we were told by the OB going in that "Mom will be tested. If she tests positive, she can't leave the room even if baby goes to NICU (ours was there for 2 weeks). If mom tests positive, dad will get tested. If negative he can either leave and not see mom until she is discharged or can stay and follow same protocol as mom as if he tested positive as well".

As our son didn't go to NICU until day 3, I probably would have stayed and not been able to see my son for a week or more if mom tested positive.

Ken Adams said:

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That was the exact same policy for us 3 weeks ago. Even dumber was that we could have one visitor at a time. No test/Pre screen needed, however I had to step outside the room when the visitor came in. Then once they left I could go back in. This was in Plano for reference.

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wow, at least mine was within the first 8 months of the pandemic hitting the US where people were still figuring things out. that doesn't make it ok, I can just offer a tad more grace and think, maybe administrators were scrambling to try to get policies in place so some ended up being bad. but now...nearly 2 years in... there's just no excuse.

As someone who has been pretty far on the cautious side of the spectrum and who holds medical professionals in pretty high regard generally, I have to say, this kind of absurdity is how the medical profession loses credibility with the public.

Call around to different practices in the areas. Surely you can find a place that isn't insane to do the procedure

GE said:

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Call around to different practices in the areas. Surely you can find a place that isn't insane to do the procedure

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I wish we could but the surgeon/doctor is one of few who do this and he practices there.

My dad has had internal bleeding/hemoglobin issues since the fall, leading to 2 hospital stays and many diagnostic procedures. They finally found a polyp in the small intestine by using a pill camera - endo and colonoscopy didn't find it. He is finally off of blood thinners - long story - and ready for the one procedure that will fix the issue, with this surgeon.

Sorry to hear that, hope it works out. Outrageous policy.

It's because hospitals aren't run by those with medical knowledge, they're run by MBAs

chickenfingers said:

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It's because hospitals aren't run by those with medical knowledge, they're run by MBAs

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You are right. The rules are actually reasonable compared to those recommended by the ones giving the medical advice these days.

BlackGoldAg2011 said:

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During this whole pandemic, hospital policies have been the ones that baffle me the most. Here is an institution built entirely around medical knowledge and treatment and yet some have the most inane policies i've heard of. My personal "favorite" was back in 2020 when we were expecting our 3rd child. The hospital was requiring my wife to test leading up to her delivery and if she was positive they would have her basically isolated in a delivery room for the whole delivery, with minimal staff contact. This included not allowing me in the room with her, and there was even rumor at the time that they may place baby in the nursery if mom was C+. The thing that made the least sense in all of this was at no point was it ever required that I test negative to be in the room with her. So they had all these hoops and draconian rules around her covid status, but didn't even so much as inquire as to my status.

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Want to hear a dumb hospital policy about delivery? One of my good friend's wife had a baby in early 2021. The baby had some complications. While the mother was in recovery she and the dad could see the baby in the nursery but only one at a time.

After she was released though he was barred completely from seeing his newborn (first child) and she could only go in to breastfeed, then forced to leave.

Felt horrible for him. He was anxious as hell twiddling his thumbs at home and couldn't go up to see his first child.

I had surgeries in Oct and Dec. My surgeon told me it was also because they are still understanding the risk of COVID and anesthesia complications, so that's another reason why it's best not to have an active infection.

I get the 'make sure there is no active infection' part. I get the testing for covid when entering a hospital part. I get that before a surgical procedure every precaution should be taken.

What I do not understand is this: for 2 years the information available has indicated that you can test positive for up to 90 days after infection. Everything I've read/heard/seen has indicated that you CANNOT be reinfected immediately after an infection, especially one that occurred less than 30 days ago.

Can anyone show me evidence that indicates that this policy of assuming that before a date you had one strain, and a positive test after that date indicates the presence of another variant and = ANOTHER infection?

That is nonsensical to me.

All of that may be true. I'm no expert

But I had TWO major surgeries within 72 hrs of testing positive and neither the surgeon nor the anesthesiologist expressed any concerns to me.

None of this stuff seems to ever be what I would call consistent or predictable

The hospital gets reimbursed big money for each Covid test by the government.

$8000 at one point per test.

I have receipts

88planoAg said:

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He won't have the procedure if he still tests positive, and it is by God because of his infection less than 1 month ago. I have seen nothing anywhere that indicates that you can be infected again less than a month after an infection.

He needs the procedure. It will be very sad if he has to wait for no reason.

Thanks for the well wishes. Please also direct those wishes to a negative test on Friday!

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I can't prove this, but I'm fairly certain that my 9 year old just had it again after testing positive in mid-December. My reasoning is that he has T1D. We've had no issues with constant high glucose levels until two weeks ago we couldn't keep him below 200 no matter what we did. Even consulting with his dr we couldn't figure it out. Then all of the sudden he went back to normal. We didn't change any insulin dosage at all the entire time. He had no symptoms of Covid, but if you know anything about T1D, when someone with it has any virus, glucose levels are a challenge to manage.

update:

He tested negative for the pre-procedure test, swabbed on Friday and was told that no news meant a negative result. Prepared for the procedure Sunday as he hadn't heard anything. Monday morning he had to have a rapid test, that was negative. Procedure was delayed due to doc having an emergency, in the meantime my dad's BP went up too high so procedure canceled and he ended up in the ER. He was discharged from ER after BP came down - he also had no food for 24 hours.

The next day he felt weak and my mom said he was confused, she was worried he had a stroke, so back to (different) ER. BP high again, tests and then admission to the hospital. As a matter of routine during "admission" (was still in ER) he had another covid test.

That one was positive. So to the covid floor he went - well, they were full, so he remained in the ER. But that kicked my mom out because no visitors allowed.

Tldr:

Dec 31 symptomatic positive with a doctor test
January 28 negative overnight test - no symptoms, procedure
January 31 negative rapid - no symptoms, procedure
Feb 1 positive rapid - no covid related symptoms (high BP) procedure