Here. Here for you. Here to deliver safe, quality care.
Is the Hospital Safe? Is My Doctor’s Office Safe?
At Penn Highlands Healthcare, the safety of our patients, employees and community is—and always will be—our highest priority.
Every day the professionals across Penn Highlands work to ensure we fulfill this promise. What has Penn Highlands done to protect your safety since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic? A great deal. Here, we’re answering your questions.
Do I Need this Appointment Right Now?
When you are sick, or in need of a prescription refill or you need a routine exam, we recommend that you call your doctor now. The office will get you scheduled for an in-office appointment or a virtual appointment through the MyHealthNow app.
Now is a more important time than ever to take care of yourself to ensure your wellness and immunity.
Watch Here For Your Safe Virtual Visit
When I come for a Procedure, What Should I Expect?
The highest quality care, as always. At every Penn Highlands facility, our experts are following guidelines by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH), including pre-surgical screening to make sure you, along all of our patients, are safe.
How Are You Keeping Patients Safe?
We strictly adhere to the guidelines that have been issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH).
- We also offer MyDocNow, a telemedicine app, so you can see your physician from home or anywhere you prefer—all without the risk of exposure. Call your doctor’s office to schedule an appointment, then follow their process to download the app and register. Registration only takes two minutes, and the app is free and private.
Watch Here For Your Safe Virtual Visit
- Most of our physician offices continue to offer ‘parking lot waiting areas’ to reduce person-to-person exposure. When you come to see your doctor, wait comfortably in your vehicle so the office can call you inside when your provider is ready to see you. Just call the office when you arrive to the parking lot. Inside our waiting rooms, you’ll find that we’ve implemented physical distancing with chairs spaced six feet apart.
Watch Here For Your Safe Doctor Office Visit
- Patients and their companions* may only access our hospitals through a single entrance in our hospitals, clinics, and other facilities. This allows us to enforce physical distancing guidelines and reduce person-to-person exposure. Patients/patient support persons will continue to undergo verbal and temperature screenings upon entry. Anyone who does not submit to the screening may be denied entry. We encourage one support person per patient only.
Watch Here For Your Safety
- All employees wear masks and/or other personal protective equipment while in the hospital or other clinical settings. Visitors are asked to wear masks at all times, as well.
- The Community Pharmacy at Penn Highlands DuBois offers no-contact drop-off and pickup, 24 hours a day.
How Have You Prepared Your Staff to Reduce the Risk of Spreading Infection?
- When COVID-19 began, we swiftly established a system-wide COVID-19 Task Force that meets regularly to review CDC and DOH guidelines for care, treatment and keeping patients and staff safe. Teams continue to meet at each Penn Highlands facility to implement updates to policies and procedures.
- Penn Highlands Healthcare has provided required training to staff and physicians about the use of personal protective equipment.
Watch Here For Your Safety
- Patients who are admitted and awaiting their COVID-19 test results are isolated from other patients according to CDC guidelines, and receive care from staff wearing appropriate PPE.
How Do You Clean Hospital Rooms, Doctors’ Offices and Public Spaces?
- We have increased the frequency of cleanings for our public areas within our facilities to several times a day, utilizing products that are effective to kill coronavirus.
- All surfaces in spaces that patients occupy, including floors and curtains, are cleaned daily with bleach, hydrogen peroxide, and industrial products that are demonstrated as effective at killing COVID-19 and other types of coronavirus. Following patient discharge, our hospital rooms are deep-cleaned and disinfected utilizing an electrostatic sprayer that reaches every surface within the room with an EPA-registered cleaning agent that effectively kills COVID-19 and other types of coronavirus.
What Should I Do If I Think I have COVID-19 Symptoms?
- Call your primary care doctor’s office and advise them of your symptoms.
- If you don’t have a doctor, call the PHH referral line at 814-375-6644 for our staff to administer an initial verbal screening. If you meet the current testing criteria set forth by the CDC, you’ll be referred to one of our COVID-19 testing locations—some which offer walk-up or drive-thru testing.
Learn more at I Think I Have COVID-19.
*Visitors and companions are permitted in certain cases.