Cardenas: Patients with non-coronavirus illnesses should still connect with their doctor

EDINBURG, TEXAS - The chairman of DHR Health is concerned Rio Grande Valley residents with non-COVID-19 illnesses are not visiting their doctor for fear they could catch the virus.Dr. Carlos Cardenas gave an in-depth interview to the Rio Grande Guardian about how his hospital is coping during the current coronavirus pandemic.“What nobody has really talked about is we have a significant amount of illness and disease in the community that did not go away. It is still here,” Cardenas said.“COVID was distraction in one way but it does not take away the fact that we still have people who have ongoing problems and issues that need to be dealt with.”Cardenas was a co-founder of Doctors Hospital at Renaissance. The health system changed its name to DHR Health a couple of years ago.Cardenas said DHR has gone to great lengths to provide a safe place for people to come to access the care that they need.“There are other illnesses that march forward and without proper attention, small problems can become big problems,” he said.“As we say, and ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So, getting the word out to the community, my message is: don’t sit at home with your illness or your problems, come see your family doctor or at least pick up the telephone and call. Let them know what is going on so that we can continue to tend to you and the things that you need apart from COVID-19.”Asked if DHR has been able to cope with its regular, non-COVID-19, workload during the pandemic, Cardenas said:“Absolutely. I think what we have seen is a decrease in the volume because I think people were afraid to come to the hospital. That is understandable but at the same time to sit at home with a problem or a condition, that needs tending is something you pay for in the long term. It should be handled when it is a smaller problem, rather than when it is a bigger problem. Those are the kinds of messages we need to get out to the community.”Cardenas said DHR is not doing anything different on the front end. He said the fact that families cannot see their loved ones in hospital is a precautionary step to ensure their safety.“We are trying to keep you safe and keep patients safe, we are trying to keep our staff safe. There are an abundance of examples of what happens when you don’t follow those rules. They are hard. This is not easy to do, particularly in our culture here, very difficult to do, But, we do all we can to look at each case individually and do what we can for the families who are in need, and to deliver it in a safe way with the best of what we know about the situation we are dealing with.”Go to www.riograndeguardian.com to read the latest border news stories and watch the latest news videos.