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The Medical Center of Southeast Texas is prepared to battle the coronavirus pandemic in the midst of the winter storm.

As of Monday morning the hospital had not seen an influx of patients with injuries or illnesses due to low temperatures, a spokesperson for the hospital said.

“We prepare well in advance for a weather event,” director of marketing and communication Angie Hebert said.

“We have disaster preparedness meetings. We make sure that. If there are transportation issues, we bring in all of the crew that we can. We plan for people to stay overnight and house them overnight. We schedule added help in certain areas like the ER.”

Hebert said the staff also does there best to reduce the hospital’s census.

“We don’t bring in a lot of elective patients that might need a tremendous amount of on-patient care,” she said. “We do our very best to make sure we don’t have a house full of patients and we focus on that point, once the event occurs, on support for the patients that are in our care.”

Hebert said the medical center had not seen many patients with storm-related illnesses or injuries.

“As of my brief at 7 p.m., we were doing okay,” she said.

Hebert said she is urging people in the Beaumont area to call 311 and those in the Mid County area call 211 if they have a non-life-threatening emergency.

“Anything that is quality-of-life related, like loss of power, we encourage people to those numbers,” she said.

On Monday morning, CHRISTUS Southeast Texas Health System said it continues to monitor weather conditions.

Scheduled outpatient services and surgeries will be closed at the following facilities on Monday:

• CHRISTUS St. Elizabeth Outpatient Pavilion

• CHRISTUS St. Mary Mid-County Outpatient Center

All scheduled outpatient services and surgeries at the Outpatient Pavilion and Mid-County Outpatient Center for Monday will be rescheduled.

In addition, Beaumont Bone and Joint Institute will be fully closed on Monday.

Visiting hours at CHRISTUS Southeast Texas St. Elizabeth will also temporarily change on Monday to 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

The Emergency Rooms at St. Elizabeth and the Mid-County Outpatient Center remain open as usual.

Residents should not delay care and seek care at their facilities if they are experiencing emergency medical symptoms.