Coronavirus
Declaration of Public Health Emergency
On Friday, March 13, 2020 the Cook Hospital & Care Center declared the threat of the COVID-19 Virus (Coronavirus) a public health emergency. In order to protect our patients, residents and staff, we have put the following measures in place:
No visitors will be allowed in the Cook Hospital facilities except for instances of compassionate care, and those visits must be arranged and approved prior to arrival. Emergency room patients will be allowed one support person. Only approved clergy and vendors will be allowed in the facility. Please consider communicating with loved ones over the phone, video chat, e-mail or social media.
All external doors will be locked, to allow us to be able to screen all persons for illness and travel prior to entering our facility. There is an intercom system that you may use to talk to a staff member should you have to come to our facility for care.
We have also closed public access to our Business Office and Medical Records. Employees will continue to provide customers with access to their medical records and will be available to answer any billing related questions over the phone. Our staff will work directly with individual patients to arrange for safe pick up or send items via mail. Arrangements can also be made for urgent requests as the law defines a release for records to be within 30 days. Please contact 218-666-5945 with any questions.
Our employees must follow travel restrictions and have been instructed of this as of Monday, March 16th. Any employees returning from travel will be placed on administrative leave for 14 days after returning home and must follow the Minnesota Department of Health guidelines on Self-Isolation. Employees must also self-screen for illness every shift they report to work.
The Adult Day Services Program and the Wellness Center have been closed to the public effective March 16, 2020 until further notice.
We will be suspending all “non-emergency” care, including outpatient colonoscopies and pain injections. We will be evaluating other outpatient services on an individual patient basis, to determine which patients need the critical service, and which patients can be rescheduled.
If you are interested in learning more about COVID-19, the following websites have the most up to date information:
https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/index.html
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html
Thank you for your patience and understanding during this very difficult and trying time; these measures are being put into place for the health and safety of our community.