IOWA CITY, Iowa — On Monday, patients were allowed to go under the knife so to speak, as Governor Reynolds lifted restrictions and allowed elective surgeries resume.
Any medical procedure not considered an emergency, vital to saving a person's life, is considered elective from knee and hip replacements to cosmetic procedures.
But like the same approach to re-opening retail in Iowa, you won't see a rush of elective surgeries right away.
The number one priority for hospitals with Unity is to ensure bed space and staff for COVID-19 patients.
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City said it plans to start procedures next week.
With some locations caring for patients in areas of coronavirus outbreaks and others seeing little to no cases, the approach to resume elected surgeries is going to be holistic.
"We want to be sure that in every region we have a good process for finding the time when it's safe to restart and assuming that when we restart we have all the ppe, staff and testing we need to do it in a really caring, safe way," Romine said.
There may still be hesitation for Iowans to go to the hospital for an elective procedure, knowing that COVID-19 patients are in the same building, though isolated.
Continue to have conversations with your doctors to see when they say its the right time to improve your quality of life.