Joins TidalHealth Peninsula Regional on a two-week pause

TidalHealth Nanticoke and the surgeons practicing at the Seaford, Delaware hospital announced that a temporary pause in elective, non-emergency surgeries that require an overnight stay for at least a two-week period started today, September 13. The same pause also took effect today at TidalHealth Peninsula Regional in Salisbury, Maryland.

All non-emergency, non-life-threatening surgeries requiring an overnight stay will be evaluated by a multidisciplinary clinical team and those that can be postponed will be. Patients affected by the pause have been notified by their surgeon’s office.

Several factors have combined recently to put stress on hospital staffing levels and hospital bed capacity at both TidalHealth hospitals.

“TidalHealth made the decision based on a set of criteria that examines physical bed capacity, unit based staffing, critical care bed saturation and the overall percentage of COVID-positive patients based on our total admissions,” said Sarah Arnett, DNP, MS, RN, NEA-BC, Chief Nursing Officer at TidalHealth. “The trigger point to reduce elective procedures is when we have exceeded our defined thresholds in three or more criteria for several days, which we have, first at TidalHealth Peninsula Regional and now at TidalHealth Nanticoke.”

“We made this decision for the safety of our patients,” said Dr. Joseph Kim, President of Medical Staff at TidalHealth Nanticoke. “We do encourage everyone to receive a COVID-19 vaccination to reduce their chances of needing hospitalization as the Delta variant and other forms of COVID-19 continue to circulate in our area.”

TidalHealth will continuously evaluate the current staffing and capacity issues so that this suspension of elective procedures and surgeries requiring an overnight stay can be lifted as soon as it’s safe to do so.

People with questions or concerns about an upcoming surgery at either TidalHealth Peninsula Regional or TidalHealth Nanticoke should contact their surgeon’s office directly.

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