Feather River Hospital to Reopen July 18

Feather River Hospital reopened Friday, July 18, after two state agencies determined on Thursday that it is safe for patients. The hospital reopened at 9 a.m. Friday.

Four surveyors from California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and two from the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) cleared the facility after inspecting the facility more than four hours. Hospital leaders evacuated and closed the hospital on July 8 because of the fire threat and went through a rigorous process to reopen it to make sure the environment was safe for patients, staff and visitors.

“It has been a long 10 days,” said hospital President and CEO Wayne Ferch. “We’re thrilled to be able to start caring for our hospital patients again and get our team back to work.” Feather River Hospital worked closely with Enloe Medical Center and Oroville Hospital during the evacuation and closure to ensure that patients were transferred safely and that the community had emergency coverage. “We are deeply grateful for their support and help,” Ferch said. “We have had quite a bit of collaboration between these organizations over the past several days and we truly appreciate all they have been able to do to support us through this situation.”

The hospital had several patients who were evacuated on July 8 return on Friday. The Emergency Department also reopened Friday, and elective surgeries are scheduled to restart Tuesday, July 22. As the patient rooms fill, staffing will be ramped up as needed.

To help employees through the closure, the hospital expanded an employee assistance fund and loosened paid-leave rules. Ferch also met with staff on Thursday afternoon to update them on the hospital’s status and to answer questions. Dozens of support staff members returned to work July 13 to evaluate the situation and develop plans to effectively clean and prepare the hospital for reopening. Others returned when the hospital’s Cancer and Anti-coagulation Centers were re-opened after inspection on July 14. In addition, Home Care and Hospice staff continued seeing patients throughout the evacuation and closure period. Others continued to work at the Feather River Outpatient Center and the Feather River Health Center, which was opened 24 hours a day during the hospital’s closure.

Ferch expressed appreciation for the 100-plus people who worked long hours this week to prepare the hospital for patients. The work involved cleaning floors, carpets, walls and furniture throughout the 80,000-square-foot hospital, replacing about 1,000 air filters, inspecting and recertifying hundreds of medical devices and testing all fire alarms, smoke alarms, nurse call systems, emergency generators, medical gases and numerous other items.

“We used extensive checklists to make sure we looked at everything affecting our patients, staff and community,” Ferch said. “Nothing is more important to us than providing the highest quality of care for our community.”

Updated information about the hospital may be found by visiting the hospital’s Web site, Feather River Hospital, or by calling the Public Information Hotline at 530-876-7283.