AdventHealth Central Florida To Transition To “Yellow” Status

Daytona Beach, FL - Effective Thursday, AdventHealth’s Central Florida division will transition to “Yellow Status,” allowing for additional deferred surgical procedures to move forward. A recent report from the healthcare system says there are currently about 1,200 COVID-19 inpatients across the Central Florida Division—which encompasses Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Lake, Polk, Volusia and Flagler counties. That census reflects a gradual decrease since AdventHealth Central Florida’s peak of about 1,700 inpatients, which came on August 23. “We are grateful to the community for their support and patience. We know there are people who have been waiting patiently for certain procedures, and we want to be able to care for them as soon as possible,” said Dr. Neil Finkler, chief clinical officer of AdventHealth’s Central Florida Division. “Our teams have been working very hard to get us into position to be able to extend care to more of our community. The situation continues to improve in our hospitals, but we still have a ways to go before we’ll feel comfortable enough to return to normal operations.” With this change to yellow status: new surgical procedures will be reduced to maximize efficiency; new elective surgeries that require inpatient admissions will be deferred; all scheduled elective surgeries that will utilize an ICU bed must be approved by a chief medical officer; and outpatient surgery sites and pediatric surgeries continue as normal. Patients impacted by this change will be contacted by their physician’s office to schedule their procedure.