This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
BY THE LONGMONT UNITED HOSPITAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Longmont United Hospital (LUH) recently celebrated 60 years of service in the Longmont community. There is a deep history of love and caring and daily hustle and bustle in the building on Mountain View Avenue. As the LUH Board of Directors, we each have a personal story and reason for volunteering to support Longmont United Hospital and its mission.
In this unprecedented time, we want to share our appreciation for our local health workers, their families and all the other staff members who are keeping our health facilities functional during COVID-19. It is also important to recognize the amazing volunteers and community members who have donated food for our facility’s families, donated personal protective (PPE) equipment to hospital staff, participated in blood drives and taken time to recognize caregivers during shift changes during this critical time.
As part of the larger Centura Health system, we are currently working strategically with the 16 other sister facilities to manage supplies, conserve and sterilize PPE and move ventilators where they are needed most. The Centura Health team is putting us in the best possible position to serve the Longmont community as well as each community our system serves.
The LUH leadership team is closely monitoring and following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as information and action with COVID-19 are fluid and constantly evolving. Peter Banko, Centura Health’s president and CEO, has reaffirmed that our incident command structure is a best practice, and that daily our organization is sharing important information with other hospital associations, the other health systems in Colorado, and state and county officials.
As a reminder, If you are sick and experiencing respiratory symptoms we encourage you to visit the Centura Health’s COVID-19 website or call the COVID-19 hotline at 888-540-8924. If you need emergency care, please use our emergency room. Centura Health is also offering first responder screening for those who are symptomatic at 1380 Tulip St. in Longmont. Responder agencies interested in offering this to their teams should email centuralovesfirst [email protected] to receive needed forms to begin these visits.
The outpouring of support from the Longmont community has been amazing and we are grateful for the many community members who have asked us how to help the caregivers at our hospital. Here are some ways you can help support our hospital: donate to the Longmont United Hospital Foundation — they are buying meals for health workers and supporting local businesses so we can support them as well; give blood at local drives and through Vitalant; and please continue to follow social distancing and stay-at-home guidelines until these orders are lifted. We must let our health workers do their jobs and the next few weeks will require us to all do our part to support them.
