Maury Regional Medical Center in Columbia, Tenn., is suspending elective procedures requiring an overnight stay, effective Oct. 26.
Fifty patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 last week — a record for 225-bed Maury Regional. Twenty of those patients were in the hospital's 26-bed ICU.
The suspension will be in effect for two weeks. Hospital leadership will re-evaluate the feasibility of elective surgeries by Nov. 9 based on hospital utilization and staffing.
"The time has long passed for our community to take this virus seriously," said Maury Regional Health CEO Alan Watson. "We are seeing the impact of our community letting down their guard and we must make every effort to mitigate the spread of this virus so that it does not further tax health care providers across Middle Tennessee and the entire state. We implore all Tennesseans to protect yourself and others by masking, social distancing and hand washing."