Willapa Medical Clinic closed until further notice; access to Willapa Harbor Hospital limited

In a COVID-19 update shared from Willapa Harbor Hospital, they say that both sides of Willapa Medical Clinic are closed. 

They tell residents that the clinic will reopen when we can be confident that it is safe for our patients to return. 

In addition, and out of an abundance of caution, the hospital is not allowing visitors to enter the hospital facility. 

Officials will be contacting patients seen at Willapa Medical Clinic within the past 7-10 days. 

If you visited Willapa Medical Clinic within that time period, per the CDC guidelines, your exposure risk is still low. 

While it is a policy to require employees to always wear a mask when caring for patients, they encourage any who are interested in testing, or who have symptoms, to be tested.

“As we receive more information we will update you. COVID-19 is a difficult challenge for our community but we will overcome it. “

We encourage everyone to do your part to slow the spread of this disease by following all CDC guidelines. 

“We appreciate the opportunity to care for our community with compassion and excellence every day. Thank you for your patience and understanding.”

The exact details of how COVID has caused the sudden closures is unknown.

-UPDATE-

In an update, the Willapa Harbor Hospital stated;

“We have had a number of questions regarding the recent COVID outbreak at Willapa Medical Center and its temporary closure yesterday. For a time, the clinic voicemail was not working but it is back up and running as of this morning. All healthcare providers are working remotely, addressing voicemails, referrals, and labs; I can also confirm that medication refills faxed from all pharmacies are being filled. The hospital (lab, radiology, inpatient, ER) is open for business as normal with exception of not allowing visitors. We are continuing contact tracing. However, nothing we have found leads us to believe that our hospital was in any way impacted by the outbreak at Willapa Medical Clinic. Our staff always follow CDC guidelines regarding temperature screening, masking, wearing gloves, maintaining 6 ft. when possible, and washing their hands. As a reminder, our drive-thru testing is available today 11/10 from 12pm -2pm, and on 11/12 from 12pm-2pm. It is closed on Veterans Day. We will continue to update the community as soon as we have more information. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we do all in our power to keep patients, staff, and our community safe.”