Coronavirus (COVID-19) Information and Resources for Community Members

Columbus Community Hospital is actively working with our agency partners like the East-Central District Health Department (ECDHD) to prepare for, prevent and control the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) in our area.

Updated news articles related to Covid-19 can be found on our Covid-19 Resources page of the website.

For a guidance of the definitions used during COVID-19, click here for a flyer from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Patient and Visitor Policies

As the COVID-19 situation continues to develop, we are constantly working to create new procedures to protect our employees, patients and visitors.

Columbus Community Hospital (CCH) is offering many programs and services that were put on hold due to COVID-19. Elective surgeries and screenings are available, and all of the hospital's clinics are seeing patients.

CCH continues to maintain the following COVID-19 safety precautions:

Everyone who visits the hospital will be given a mask and be required to wear it
All CCH staff members will wear a mask as part of the hospital's universal mask policy
Increased cleaning and disinfection will be done throughout the hospital
Social distancing will be reinforced in all waiting areas
Patients and visitors will be prescreened for COVID-19

Though CCH will maintain the above safety precautions, it is adjusting some other COVID-19 policies, including its visitor restrictions. To view the listing of CCH's visitor policies, please click here.

All patients and visitors who enter CCH or one of its clinics will to be asked the following questions to screen them for COVID-19:

Have you had close contact (six feet for 10 minutes or more) with a confirmed case or person under investigation for COVID-19 within the last 14 days?
Have you or someone in your immediate household tested positive for COVID-19 or are pending results for COVID-19 testing?
Do you currently have a fever (>100.0F), chills, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, headache, loss of taste or smell, vomiting and/or diarrhea?

Visitors who fail these screenings will not be permitted to enter the hospital or clinic. Likewise, anyone with a confirmed or pending COVID-19 diagnosis is not allowed as a visitor or support person.

Policies on Bill Payments and Medical Record Requests

To reduce the number of visitors to the hospital, patients are being asked not to come to the hospital in person to pay their bills or request medical records.

Patients are being asked to pay their bills by mail, phone or online through CCH’s free and secure Online Business Office: https://columbus.patientcompass.com/RA. If people have questions about bill payments, they should call the Patients Account Department at 402-562-3159 between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday to Friday.
Patients who want to request their medical records should call the Medical Records Department at 402-562-3140 between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The Medical Records staff will then explain the procedures for picking up medical records and make arrangements to get patients the records they need.

Prevention and Elective Health Care

We at CCH are encouraging people to continue with their regular health care activities if they have avoided them throughout this pandemic. This includes checkups and wellness visits for children, teens and adults. Although national and state recommendations continue to encourage social distancing, it is safe to attend these visits and it is important to do so. Regularly-scheduled checkups give health care providers an opportunity to detect physical and mental health issues, help patients manage their chronic conditions, promote healthy behaviors and answer any questions patients might have. Children's checkups also provide an opportunity for physicians to monitor children's growth and development, and update their vaccinations.

Steps to Reduce Spread

People can take everyday steps to protect themselves and others from COVID-19, including:

Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds
If soap and water are not available, use a hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol
Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands
Avoid close contact with people who are sick
Stay home if you are sick
Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze and throw used tissues in the trash or cough or sneeze into the inside of your elbow
Wear a facemask if you are sick
Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces – phones, doorknobs, light switches, etc.

These tips are from the CDC. Visit this webpage to learn more.

Testing Opportunities

CCH has become a permanent Test Nebraska collection site for COVID-19. People who are having symptoms of COVID-19 and would like to be tested through Test Nebraska, must register online at www.testnebraska.com/en.

According to the CDC, people with COVID-19 may have a wide range of symptoms - ranging from mild symptoms to severe illness. Symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure and include

Fever or chills
Cough
Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
Fatigue
Muscle or body aches
Headache
New loss of taste or smell
Sore throat
Congestion or runny nose
Nausea or vomiting
Diarrhea

After registering through Test Nebraska, people will receive a QR code and be assigned a testing appointment at CCH. Appointments are available on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. through December 31, 2020. CCH's TestNebraska collection site has moved off campus to 4147 48th Avenue for the winter months. This is the Husker Helicopter site location directly north of the hospital.

For full details about our TestNebraska Collection Site, please click here.

Mask Up, Columbus

Wearing a mask is a simple and effective way to help reduce the spread of COVID-19. According to the CDC, COVID-19 is spread mainly from person to person through respiratory droplets which are produced when people cough, sneeze or talk.

Masks trap these respiratory droplets and prevent them from traveling into the air and onto other people. The CDC recommends people older than 2 years old wear masks or cloth face coverings in public, especially in places where social distancing is hard to enforce such as in pharmacies, grocery stores and at gas stations.

Resources for More Information

To ensure you have the latest and most accurate information, we recommend using the following sources:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services: http://dhhs.ne.gov/Pages/Coronavirus.aspx
East Central District Health Department: https://ecdhd.ne.gov/covid-2019-novel-coronavirus/covid-2019-novel-coronavirus.html

Information from Our Local Health Experts

December 15: As we kick off the week before Christmas, Dr. Kurt Kapels, Clinical Director of Inpatient Physician Associates and hospitalist at Columbus Community Hospital, provides a update on COVID-19 in our area.

View more informational videos from our healthcare professionals.