[ad_1]
ST. GEORGE – Dixie Regional Medical Center has seen a substantial increase in the number of new coronavirus patients over the past few days to the point that 20% of the hospital’s capacity is now filled with COVID-19 patients. There are also now more COVID-19 patients requiring intensive care in hospital than the number of intensive care beds usually available.
Between Saturday and Monday, there were between 55 and 61 southern Utah residents in hospital for COVID-19 – the most since the pandemic began in March.
But Dr Patrick Carroll, the hospital’s medical director, said the problem was not the number of beds available or the provision of ventilators or personal protective equipment at the hospital..
The problem is that the hospital is understaffed to cope with the seemingly endless influx of patients.
“Currently, we have adequate supplies. We have enough space, including BLU-MED on. . The problem of staffing is the most critical issue, ”Carroll said. “Staff is the limiting situation right now. It is essential to understand that the ICU volumes are greater than the capacity of the ICU. We have enough covid patients to fill our normal intensive care space. It takes a lot of nurses, a lot of respritoty therapists.
Normally, an ICU nurse at St. George’s Hospital is responsible for one patient, maybe two if the ICU is near capacity.
Currently, intensive care nurses treat at least three critically ill patients at a time.
“That may not sound like a lot. But remember, these are critically ill patients, ”Carroll said.
They also continue to have to work more and longer shifts. Most nurses work five 12-hour shifts per week and respond to text messages at other times when additional help is needed.
“To date we had the most intensive care patients we have seen, and while I haven’t specifically looked at the numbers for the past few years, I think it’s fair to say that we have more intensive care patients today. than we’ve ever had in the history of Dixie Dixie Regional Medical Center, ”Carroll said. “We are well beyond the normal capacity of the ICU. We have grown and exceeded our normal level. “
Traveling nurses have already been brought to Dixie Regional, and more will be arriving.
And that’s still not enough.
Rihannon Wanlass has been a nurse for 15 years, the last seven in the Dixie Regional ICU. She said her family and circle of friends asked her, “Is it really that bad?”
Wanlass said it wasn’t that bad. It’s worse.
“They say it’s like the flu. I have been through influenza pandemics here. We have done the H1N1 several times. People are getting sick because of it, but it wasn’t far from it, ”said Wanlass. “As nurses, we are shocked to see so many people keep coming with no end in sight. We’re stretched to our limit now, and if it keeps getting worse that it is a daunting task to see where we are going to go. Nurses work five 12 hour shifts… and we are still missing. “
This task is even more daunting with the thought of what is yet to happen in the coming weeks.
Carroll praised what he said large numbers of Southern Utahns have heeded the warnings and limited Thanksgiving to their households and taken other steps to prevent the spread of the virus. However, there are still some who have not.
Due to the gestational period of the virus, the effect of the holiday weekend will not show up in Utah Department of Health statistics for at least another week, and it will likely be another week after. this before the Thanksgiving hospitalizations show up. in Dixie Regional – around the time people are getting ready for another family Christmas party.
Wanlass said that, like an athlete in a playoff series, she and her fellow nurses take things “one day at a time” and try not to even think about the influx of patients that might come in as a result of Thanksgiving in. most of all the patients already in the hospital.
But the thought makes her cry.
“We try not to think about it. We just go through every shift every day. We take each day as it comes. Because if it gets so overwhelming to worry… I mean sometimes when I’m done I’m going to cry, right? You think, “I don’t know if I can come back and start over.” We will keep coming back and we will continue to provide the care we can, but we’re just trying to take it shift by shift. Sadly that’s the only way we can keep coming back. “
Like a hurricane, the pandemic cycle has apparently had calm eyes in the midst of the storm when it comes to infections. A week of record numbers of new infections turns to a plateau a week or two later, as those new infections turn into a new wave of hospitalizations and deaths.
New infections have plateaued now, as the Utah Department of Health said there had been a sharp reduction in the number of new cases over the past five days, as they said measures like the State-wide mask mandate adopted three weeks ago seems to finally be having an impact.
But there has never been an eye of the storm for hospitals. Part of the reason is, usually, that a COVID-19 patient admitted to the hospital is there for at least 30 days. New patients are piling up on those already in the hospital. Carroll said that unlike the summer surge, where hospitalizations had times when they had plummeted, there had been no lull in hospitalizations in the current peak that has taken place since late October.
And in the past two weeks, 21 Southern Utahns have lost their lives to COVID-19, including another death reported Monday in Washington County.
“We’re starting to flatten out a bit (in cases). I hope this trend will continue. Hopefully it’s not just because the numbers weren’t reported on Thanksgiving Day and there weren’t any open tests on Thanksgiving Day. And time will tell if it’s a sustained flattening or shrinking or if it’s just a failure, ”Carroll said. “But we are also seeing an increase in the number of hospitalizations and the increase in hospitalizations has actually been quite large.”
While at the start of the pandemic, social media was filled with inspiring images of seemingly entire cities applauding doctors and nurses as they left their posts, it is now filled with accusations that doctors and nurses distort what is happening in the hospital. Let them make more money from more COVID-19 patients. Or that the hospitals are not at all filled with more patients.
And although the “Heroes Work Here” banners still fly outside the hospital, that criticism has become frustrating to face, Wanlass said, after another 12-hour shift.
“We’re not used to seeing people just shrug their shoulders in the community. And it’s hard. I wish people understood, ”Wanlass said. “Online people can distance themselves and not really feel like it’s something real to them. It’s hard because we’re trying so hard in the hospital.
COVID-19 Information Resources
St. George News has done everything possible to ensure that the information in this story is correct at the time it was written. However, as the situation and the science surrounding the coronavirus continue to evolve, it is possible that some data has changed.
Check out the resources below for up-to-date information and resources.
Number of coronaviruses in southern Utah (as of November 30, 2020, seven-day average in parentheses)
Positive COVID-19 tests: 11,958 (181.7 new infections per day in seven days, down from November 28)
- Washington County: 9,550 (141 per day, down)
- Iron County: 1,836 (34.9 per day, declining)
- Kane County: 173 (2.9 per day, down)
- Garfield County: 240 (1.6 per day, fall)
- Beaver County: 159 (1.4 per day, fall)
New infections for major cities in southern Utah (figures released before southern Utah figures):
- NOTE: Today’s issues are Saturday and Sunday issues
- Saint-Georges: 114
- Washington City: 30
- Hurricane / LaVerkin: 18
- Ivins City / Santa Clara: 15
- Cedar City: 33
Death: 91 (1.1 per day, declining)
- Washington County: 76 (1 new: hospitalized male over 85)
- Iron County: 6
- Garfield County: 6
- Kane County: 1
- Beaver County: 2
Hospitalized: 55 (up)
Active cases: 4582 (up)
Restored: 7 057
Current seven-day Utah average: 2.312 (declining)
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2020, all rights reserved.
[ad_2]
Source link