Hospitals Prepare for COVID-19 Surge

Hospitals face mounting pressure from a surge in coronavirus cases that threatens to overwhelm their capacity, as the country braces for further escalation after Thanksgiving.

More than 93,000 people are in hospital with coronavirus, a record high, and the number continues to rise, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project.

The country is also registering more than 150,000 new cases every day, and the numbers are likely to only get worse given a flurry of gatherings and travel since Thanksgiving.

Hospitals across the country are bracing for an already tense situation to worsen.

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), which represents academic medical centers across the country, sent a document last week to its member hospitals reminding them of the “standards of crisis care,” which are used to cope to an overwhelming number of patients.

“From everywhere I hear a growing and growing concern,” said Janis Orlowski, AAMC Chief Medical Officer. “I think we’re going to have another significant increase in the number and this is on top of what is already an extraordinary number of hospitalizations.

Orlowski said she expected more hospitals will soon have to start implementing crisis standards, which include increasing resources in a way that would not normally be done. For example, a nurse could care for four patients at a time instead of two, she says.

“It’s not a complete abandonment like, ‘You get care and you don’t,’ she said. “Instead of getting 100% of the care, you could get 90% or 80% of it.”

Hospitals are already taking extraordinary measures. As part of a two-week “break” announced by the governor, Rhode Island sent an alert to residents’ cellphones on Monday: “Hospitals are at full capacity due to COVID. Help the front line by staying home as much as possible for the next two weeks. A field hospital is also opening in the state this week.

Jeff Pothof, quality manager for the UW Health hospital system in Madison, Wisconsin, said his hospital had already “exceeded our normal capabilities.” He said it’s possible the hospital will be so overwhelmed that doctors can’t treat people with heart attacks and strokes if there’s another major flare-up after Thanksgiving. “If we see another wave besides the wave we just had, it becomes quite risky for us,” he said. “We don’t have too much stuff up our sleeve anymore.”

To provide more space for patients with COVID-19, the UC Health hospital system in Cincinnati converted its cardiovascular recovery unit to intensive care capacity on Monday.

“The outbreak of COVID here (and across the country) is forcing this limited group of doctors and nurses to work harder every day under conditions that are intensely exhausting emotionally and physically – and we are wearing them out,” said Amanda Nageleisen, gatekeeper. word of UC Health. “Our healthcare workers cannot continue at this rate, and many are coping with this surge.”

The University of Utah Hospital has two additional teams caring for COVID-19 patients in the ICU.

“Everyone you talk to is tired, especially in the intensive care units where it just creaks,” said Russell Vinik, the university’s director of medical operations.

Health officials are urging the public to take precautions such as wearing masks, keeping others away, avoiding gatherings indoors and washing their hands to ease the burden on health workers.

“The indoor social meeting is not something that should be happening now,” said Orlowski of the AAMC. “It should be extremely limited.”

Experts have also long warned that bars and restaurants indoors should be closed in hard-hit areas. Yet only 15 states have closed their bars, according to a tracker from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Additional economic aid that could cushion the blow of business closures has been stuck in Congress for months.

“Close the bars and keep the schools open, that’s what we really say”, Anthony FauciAnthony FauciFauci: Restrictions likely won’t be lifted until Christmas health officials warn of spike in COVID-19 cases after Thanksgiving Holiday season banned in South Korea MORE, the government’s leading infectious disease expert, told ABC “This Week” on Sunday.

Fauci told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he had received calls from colleagues in different states saying, “We’re at this point where we’re going soon, if things don’t turn out quickly we’re going to have a situation with it. the capacity. Not only the capacity of the hospital, but also the staff. You know, what do you think we should do? “

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan (right) tweeted a warning Monday that his state has its highest level of COVID-19 hospitalizations since May.

“As this new wave continues, every Maryland resident must exercise their personal responsibility to save lives and keep our hospitals from overflowing,” Hogan wrote.

California Gov. Gavin NewsomGavin Newsom Skepticism over vaccines emerges as Biden’s early test Denver mayor apologizes for vacation trips after advising residents to stay put California and Texas break national record by one day new cases of coronavirus PLUS (D) tweeted that hospitals are on the verge of running out of intensive care beds before Christmas. “Please stay safe and stay home as much as you can for the next few weeks,” he wrote.

Orlowski said there were now growing issues of shortages of N95 masks and gloves for health workers, which she called a “canary in the coal mine” for further shortages of protective gear as cases and hospitalizations are increasing.

There is some good news as hospitalizations have started to decline slightly in recent days in some of the hardest-hit states, including North and South Dakota and Wisconsin.

But Orlowski said she was concerned that an improvement measure could soon be reversed in those states by a new wave of Thanksgiving gatherings.

A brighter light at the end of the tunnel comes from the promising news about the effectiveness of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

These vaccines could start being given to high-risk groups as early as December, but it will be several months before they are widely available to the general public, meaning the crisis will not abate in the short term.

Nonetheless, the initial vaccinations of health workers starting in December would be helpful in maintaining the capacity of the hospital by preventing doctors and nurses from staying at home with the virus.

“You burn at both ends,” said Vinik, the University of Utah physician. “If we can at least get our frontline workers vaccinated against COVID, the candle will only burn at one end.”