ER doctor on Hilton Head has contracted COVID-19, complaint alleges
Amid allegations that a Hilton Head Island emergency room physician with a large private practice has contracted COVID-19, a complaint filed with town manager Steve Riley is calling for widespread coronavirus testing.
A Hilton Head Hospital spokesperson said Saturday, however, the doctor in question has not worked at the hospital in nearly two weeks.
The complaint was emailed to Riley about 3:40 a.m. Saturday by Beverly Taylor, a local real estate broker who also publicly posted about the situation on Facebook earlier this week.
Taylor, in an earlier Facebook message sent to The Island Packet, added that the physician works in the Hilton Head Regional Healthcare system.
“As I see it, massive community Covid-19 testing is needed, warranted required and should be demanded of HHI Regional Hospital to administer to all who have been recently treated by this doctor immediately,” Taylor wrote in her complaint.
The newspaper is not naming the doctor at this point because neither the doctor nor the practice could be reached Saturday to comment on precautions taken, or what communication has been delivered to patients.
Daisy Burroughs, a spokesperson for Tenet Healthcare, which owns Hilton Head and Coastal Carolina hospitals, in a statement Saturday said she was unable to comment on a specific patient’s case due to privacy laws. But she did say that the doctor in question has not worked at Hilton Head Hospital in nearly two weeks.
In an interview Saturday, Taylor said she was at the hospital’s emergency room with a friend on July 8 when the doctor walked in with a luggage bag. The doctor said not to come closer because he had COVID-19, she said. Taylor’s friend, who asked not to be named in this story, confirmed to The Island Packet that she heard the doctor say he had COVID-19.
“They have an obligation, they need to contact every single person who is at risk,” Taylor said of the hospital.
Burroughs did not answer an emailed question Saturday about any plans the hospital had to contact patients who might have been exposed to the doctor.
Taylor said one of the doctor’s family members contacted her multiple times this week, demanding that she take down her Facebook post. She subsequently did, but Taylor is concerned that might mean the practice is not being transparent with everyone it should be.
Riley, the town manager, said in a voicemail left Saturday in response to a reporter’s questions that he didn’t fully understand an earlier message seeking comment on the complaint. He did say that state Sen. Tom Davis (R-Beaufort) has helped organize a slate of COVID-19 testing events in Beaufort County later this month.
When asked for comment Saturday, a spokesperson for the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control wrote in an email that the public health agency would follow up on the matter, “but I don’t think we’ll be able to get back to you today.”
