Gov. Greg Abbott announced last week he would relax the prohibition on non-urgent, elective surgeries or procedures.
Those activities could go ahead, he ordered, if:
- The procedure, if performed in accordance with the commonly accepted standard of clinical practice, would not deplete the hospital capacity or the personal protective equipment (PPE) needed to cope with the COVID-19 disaster; or
- The surgery or procedure occurs in a licensed health care facility that has certified with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) that it will reserve at least 25% of its hospital capacity for treating COVID-19 patients, accounting for their range of clinical severity; and that the facility will not request PPE from any public source, whether federal, state, or local, during the COVID-19 disaster.
Since then, physicians have been asking the Texas Medical Association where they could find out which hospitals or ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) had filed such a certification with HHSC. It took a bit of sleuthing, but TMA staff found a pair of Excel files on the HHSC website that, sort of, spell it out:
Only those with a date entered in the “CERTIFICATION ACKNOWLEDGED” column officially have a certification on file.
HHSC regularly updates the files, so check back periodically for the most current information.
Remember, you can find the latest news, resources, and government guidance on the coronavirus outbreak by visiting TMA’s COVID-19 Resource Center regularly.
Last Updated On
April 28, 2020
Originally Published On
April 28, 2020