AHN’s McCandless hospital to open Thursday

Pittsburgh Business Times                          

The second of four neighborhood hospitals planned by Allegheny Health Network will open this week, this one in McCandless. AHN McCandless opens Thursday, the hospital system confirmed in a statement Wednesday. It follows the opening earlier this year of AHN Hempfield, which like AHN McCandless is a small-format hospital with a full emergency department and a small number of short-stay observation beds. AHN McCandless is a four-story, 50,000-square-foot facility with an emergency department, CT and X-ray rooms and 11 beds in an inpatient unit for observations and short stays. It also will have an outpatient center attached that will have primary care, pulmonology, chronic disease management, and other services. “When more comprehensive care is needed, AHN McCandless will provide a smooth transition to nearby full-service hospitals, including the future AHN Wexford Hospital, which is expected to open in 2021,” AHN said in a statement.

AHN opens first of four COVID-19 test sites in Allegheny, Erie counties

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Seeking a way to take more COVID-19 samples from people who have symptoms, but do it safely, Allegheny Health Network on Wednesday announced the region’s first drive-through test sites for patients with a doctor’s order. Following the example of health care systems across the country, including Cleveland Clinic and Penn Medicine in Philadelphia, AHN opened the first of a planned four sites late Tuesday, taking nasal swabs from 12 people in the garage at its AHN Wexford Health location Tuesday, and another 19 people by noon on Wednesday. Calling it a “significant new effort in our battle against the coronavirus,” Brian Parker, AHN’s chief quality officer, said the goal of the drive-through sites was to keep potential COVID-19 patients “away from our emergency departments and physicians’ offices if they don’t need to be there.” AHN hopes to start doing 50 tests per day at each location, eventually being able to do up to 20 tests per hour at each site, running from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, with an hour break for the staff. Three other locations will be open by the end of the week in Bethel Park, Monroeville, and Erie. 

AHN doctors using virtual appointments to help flatten coronavirus curve

WPXI-TV (Pittsburgh, Pa.)

To help flatten the coronavirus curve, health officials are urging people to pick up their phones instead of running to the doctor’s office. “Now patients are hearing that, and they say as long as I can get care and get my questions answered, then I don’t care how that happens,” said Dr. Amy Crawford-Faucher, AHN vice chair of family medicine. Crawford-Faucher showed Channel 11 how it works, beginning with a patient downloading the MyChart app. From there, they can schedule an appointment and see a doctor virtually. AHN doctors had 90 telemedicine appointments all last month. But with the rapid spread of coronavirus, that number skyrocketed to 100 yesterday alone.