GREENFIELD — If there’s one message doctors at Baystate Franklin Medical Center have a year into the pandemic, it’s for people to return to getting the care they need, including and especially preventive care so they don’t get sick.
“We saw the way the COVID pandemic developed,” Dr. Timothy Lepore, medical director at Pioneer Women’s Health, part of Baystate Franklin Medical Center, said. “If we look at the first three or four months of the pandemic, we didn’t have enough masks, we didn’t have testing, there were all sorts of shortages. It made sense to pretty much close down to everything except emergencies.”
Lepore said the hospital stopped seeing people who were seeking preventive care or were scheduled for elective surgery. He said some didn’t want to come in anyway in fear of getting the virus. Telehealth became the go-to method of seeing patients.
“That wasn’t just here in Greenfield, but nationwide,” he said.
Lepore said people stopped going to the emergency room in Greenfield — some would come in days after having a heart attack.
“Typically, in the first few hours doctors can treat patients with anticoagulants or put stents in,” he said. “Coming in much later meant more problems.”
Lepore said as a doctor of obstetrics, gynecology and women’s health, he saw a lot more endometrial cancer over the past year.
“It was off a cliff,” he said. “Women didn’t come in when they had post-menopausal bleeding. They didn’t go to the hospital because they were more afraid of COVID-19.”
He said while schools, businesses and others have just started talking about how to reopen over the past few months, the local hospital started having those conversations three or four months into the pandemic.
“We’ve put all of the systems and protocols in place to prevent spread in the hospital,” he said. “Since elective procedures began again about seven months ago, we haven’t had one positive COVID case because of it.”
Lepore said the risk, at this point, of not getting the care someone needs is much higher than the risk of getting COVID-19 in Baystate Franklin Medical Center.
“You’re more likely to get it out somewhere than here,” he said. “So people should be getting their colonoscopies, their mammograms, whatever they need.”
Lepore said probably 50 to 70 percent of people have returned for care, and that might be because more people are vaccinated each day. He said about 92 percent of the hospital staff has receive their vaccine and Baystate Franklin is working on the other 8 percent.
“We’re working our way back and though we understand the fear that even now still exists, we can treat people safely,” he said. “We find ourselves in a different world than we did a year ago, even though we’re also in a different world than we were before that time.”
Lepore suggests everyone get vaccinated when it’s their turn.
“It’s highly effective,” he said.
He said people should not delay care any longer, whether they need emergency care or a regular screening.
“If there’s another spike because of one of the variants, the hospital will re-evaluate the situation,” he said. “We know what to do. We have a really good track record through this.”
Dr. Pikeshkumar Patel, a gastroenterologist at Baystate Franklin Medical Center who does colonoscopies, endoscopies and other gastrointestinal procedures, said it is much better at this point to have a colonoscopy in a safe setting like the hospital than to wait.
“Benign lesions can turn to cancer, but if we find them soon enough, we can take care of them before than happens,” he said. “You don’t want to delay a procedure like that because if you wait, it’s more likely to turn to cancer. If we find the cancer early enough, before it spreads, we can cure it.”
Patel said early detection is key. He said in the early days of the pandemic, that wasn’t possible because not only were there personal protective equipment shortages, but doctors were taking care of sick COVID-19 patients.
“We were conserving critical resources,” he said. “We’ve slowly reopened since July and things have been going well. We’re doing our part to prevent the spread.”
Patel said all patients coming into the hospital for outpatient procedures are tested for the virus and are screened on the day they arrive. Everyone’s temperature is checked and they are asked questions. Family is not allowed to stay with them and waiting rooms are closed to everyone but the patients.
“All staff social distances themselves, doctors are in full gear — masks, shields, gowns, gloves, scrubs — and every patient must wear a mask,” he said. “Hands and rooms, instruments, everything is constantly sanitized.”
He said there is typically a 10-minute wait between cases so that rooms can be fully sanitized.
“We’re doing all of this for our patients so that they don’t become infected with the virus,” Patel said. “We don’t want anyone to wait for care. That could just become a much bigger problem in the end.”
Reach Recorder reporter Anita Fritz at 413-772-9591 or afritz@recorder.com.