COVID-19 hospitalizations hit record high, with EMMC, Maine

Hospitalizations for COVID-19 continue to rise in Maine, breaking all-time records for both concurrent hospitalizations statewide and for intensive care patients, with much of the burden occurring in hospitals. medical centers serving central, western and eastern Maine.

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 hospital patients statewide reached 90 on Friday, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 50% more than the worst day of the spring outbreak. Worryingly, the majority of those hospital patients were in intensive care – 49 statewide, the highest level since the start of the pandemic and well above the spring peak of 27.

The Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor carries the heaviest burden of any hospital in the state, with an average of 14.3 COVID-19 confirmed hospital patients treated each day during the week ending Thursday. That figure represented a high pandemic for the hospital, the tertiary care center for much of eastern and northern Maine, and was well above the average of 8.9 for the previous week and 4 , 7 the previous week. By comparison, EMMC had spent the entire month of September without admitting a single such patient and only had a handful in August and the first half of October.

MaineGeneral broke its record for confirmed COVID-19 hospital patients for the third week in a row with an average of 12.1 treated each day for the week ending Thursday, up from 9.9 the week before. Over the summer months, there were many weeks when the Augusta hospital did not have any patients hospitalized for COVID-19.

During most of the pandemic, Maine Medical Center in Portland has treated about half of the state’s COVID-19 hospital patients, as it serves as the tertiary care center for the populated southwest third of the state. But in the new wave, the hospital did not experience as strong an increase as its counterparts higher on Interstate 95. MaineMed’s COVID-19 inpatient burden of 9.4 per day was actually less. by a hair compared to last week, when it was 9.9, although more than 3.6 the week before. He’s also well below peak levels for the spring flare when treating more than 30 hospital patients with COVID-19 at one time.

Over the past week, as forecast models predicted that the surge in hospitalizations would continue for weeks, officials at the three hospitals and at the Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston told the Press Herald they would be able meet demand by relocating staff and elective surgery beds. if necessary. But they also expressed concern that their own staff would be exposed off the ward, which would create ripple effects in a state that was short of nurses and respiratory technicians even before the pandemic hit. .

The two Lewiston hospitals also broke hospitalization records for COVID-19 this week. These more than doubled at CMMC, from 2.9 per day last week to 6.6 this week. Two weeks ago it was 1.7 and 0.9 the week before. The city’s other hospital, St. Mary’s, had its busiest week with an average of 4.3 COVID-19 hospital patients per day, up from 1.6 in the previous period.

For those severely affected by the disease, hospitalizations typically follow initial exposure to the disease by one to three weeks, suggesting that the trend will worsen given the rapid and continuing rise in newly diagnosed cases. Over the past three weeks, Maine has repeatedly broken its daily record for new COVID-19 cases, suggesting that the hospitalization spike will continue to grow.

Hospitalizations have increased at both York County hospitals. Southern Maine Health Care Medical Center in Biddeford, which had an average of 4.4 patients hospitalized per day for COVID-19 this week, up from 3.1 the week before. York Hospital in York, a much smaller facility, set a record for the entire pandemic of 4.1 per day, up sharply from 1.4 the week before, with an all-time high of 6 such patients processed Wednesday and Thursday.

Portland’s Mercy Hospital has remained calm with an average of 3 patients per day, up from 1.7 last week. Brunswick’s Mid Coast Hospital was averaging 1.9 per day this week, up from 3.6 last week.

In the spring and summer, it was common for one or two smaller hospitals in Maine to report having one or two patients hospitalized with a pandemic for a few days, then going weeks or even months without one. But over the past month, many of these small hospitals have taken in patients at the same time. In the week ending Thursday, these included Franklin Memorial in Farmington, Waldo General in Belfast, Sebasticook Valley in Pittsfield, PenBay Medical Center in Rockport, Inland Hospital in Waterville, Blue Hill Hospital, AR Gould in Presque Isle, Maine Coast Hospital in Ellsworth and Mayo Regional in Dover-Foxcroft, which for the first time received patients with COVID-19, including 3 only on Wednesday.

Hospitalizations are a delayed indicator in that they usually occur one to three weeks after a person is exposed to the disease, but unlike other metrics, it does not depend on who and how many people have had the disease. been tested. They can end in three ways: recovery, death or transfer to another institution.

The Press Herald’s investigation covers the seven days ending Thursday. It compiles data directly from hospitals and hospital networks. The data does not include ambulatory or hospitalized patients suspected of having the virus but who have never been tested. It includes most of the state’s hospitals and accounts for the vast majority of statewide hospitalizations reported weekly by the Maine CDC.

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