Hospital officials say it's safe for North Texans to go to hospitals and get medical care they need

DALLAS - Baylor Scott & White Health Care System is putting out the call for people to come back and get the medical care they need.

Executive orders that, for a time, ended elective medical procedures expired April 23.

But hospitals, like Baylor Scott & White, have not seen patients come back, even for outpatient services.

People are staying away because of COVID-19, and not wanting to be exposed to the virus.

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Hospital officials said it’s now safe for people to go to the hospital.

“We feel like we've been paving the way on COVID-19 care,” Baylor Scott & White’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Amy Wilson said.

Wilson added that as the hospital system learned about this novel coronavirus, it too had some novel medical milestones, like doing a large part of statewide COVID-19 testing.

“Establishing protocols in testing. How we isolate these patients in intensive care units, to how we provide PPE to keep our patients and team members safe,” Wilson explained.

The hospital already uses an ultraviolet light system called Tru-D as disinfectant.

“It’s placed in the rooms and it helps to essentially decontaminate the room from any bacteria or other pathogens,” Wilson said.

Two months of shelter-in-place and local and state orders banning elective procedures put Baylor and all healthcare in a downward national trend, as patients stayed away from hospitals.

“We have very serious concerns about patients who have strokes, heart attacks, things that really need urgent care and benefit from early care,” Wilson explained. “We are very concerned that people are staying home and not seeking that urgent care.”

Wilson pointed out that throughout this pandemic, babies have been born are people were still getting transplants.

“Forty people in the past few weeks have received lifesaving transplants, even in the midst of this,” she said.

Wilson said that even though people will continue to practice social distancing for the foreseeable future, she pleaded: Don't let that jeopardize your future.

“We're treating heart attacks. We're treating strokes. Please come into the hospital to get this addressed so that your outcome is the best that it can be,” she said.

There has been a recent uptick in the number of people showing up at emergency rooms, but Wilson said it’s still not like before the coronavirus came.

The healthcare system will soon start an all-out campaign to try and get folks back in for the care they've been putting off.

RELATED: Interactive map of Texas COVID-19 cases