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These are “not minor procedures,” said the CEO of the hospital system.
(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Dr. Marc Harrison, President and CEO of Intermountain Healthcare – seen here during Governor Spencer Cox’s COVID-19 briefing on August 31, 2021 – announced on September 10, 2021, that 13 of the hospitals in its system will postpone “urgent but not fatal” surgeries, due to the increase in COVID-19 cases.
Noting that its intensive care units are over 100% capacity due to an increase in COVID-19 cases, the head of Utah’s largest hospital system said he would start postponing “urgent surgeries” but not immediately fatal ”in 13 Utah hospitals.
“We have done everything we can think of to maintain a normal quality of care,” Dr Marc Harrison, President and CEO of Intermountain Healthcare, said at a virtual press conference on Friday. “And that’s not enough.”
The number of proceedings that will be delayed from Logan to St. George, starting Wednesday and continuing for at least a few weeks, will number in the hundreds, Harrison said.
These are “not minor procedures that are trivial, which are purely elective,” he said, adding that people will have to live with the pain and uncertainty longer than they otherwise would have. because of the delays.
“The break from surgery is going to be a challenge – for you, your family, your friends,” Harrison said. “It’s going to make people miserable, and it’s going to scare people, and in some cases, it’s going to make people miserable.”
Intermountain hospitals are treating around 350 COVID-19 patients on Friday, Harrison said – and about half of the system’s intensive care beds “are occupied by COVID patients.” Statewide, there are 529 people hospitalized with COVID-19, state health officials reported on Friday.
He cited projections that conditions will worsen. “We believe we will need around 40 additional intensive care beds and around 70 additional general practice beds in the very near future,” Harrison said. “And guess what? We just don’t have them.… The cavalry isn’t coming. We’re the cavalry, and when I say ‘we’ I mean the community as a whole.
Delays in surgeries will affect these 13 hospitals: Logan Regional Hospital; McKay-Dee Hospital, Ogden; Layton Hospital; LDS Hospital, Salt Lake City; Intermountain Medical Center, Murray; Park City Hospital; Riverton Hospital; Alta View Hospital, Sandy; American Fork Hospital; Utah Valley Hospital, Provo; Spanish Hospital of the Forks; Cedar City Hospital; St. George Regional Hospital.
Harrison, who was treated for multiple myeloma in remission, said: “It quickly became a pandemic of medically fragile people – people like me, people with compromised immune systems – and the unvaccinated.”
About 87% of COVID-19 patients in Intermountain’s system are unvaccinated, Harrison said. They tend to be 20 years younger than vaccinated patients and are less likely to have other underlying conditions, he said.
Responding to President Joe Biden’s statement on Thursday that “our patience is running out” with people who are not vaccinated, Harrison gave his own opinion: “I am not impatient with the person who chose not to get vaccinated. get vaccinated. I am looking forward to the situation. My hope is that, as people understand, they will choose – as the Utahns have been doing for so long – to be part of the solution and help their neighbors. “
Harrison cited the case of a man who recently visited one of Intermountain’s referral hospitals, so ill that doctors in the emergency department wanted him admitted. “He denied he actually had COVID, denied it was even a problem,” Harrison said. “He returned a few hours later under arrest and died.
He urged the unvaccinated to “look into your hearts. What is your role in ending this pandemic and enabling your neighbors to get the health care they need? I hope they will come to positive responses. And please, if you choose not to be vaccinated, you have to be extremely careful. You have to isolate yourself. You must wear a mask. We don’t want you to be another person whose life is ruined or ended by an unnecessary COVID infection. “
Harrison said delays in surgeries will not be ordered at rural Intermountain hospitals, the orthopedic surgical hospital or the children’s primary hospital – although some cases can be postponed if necessary, depending on individual circumstances.
Intermountain will still not require its employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19, Harrison said. He noted that the company’s vaccination rate is “north of 80%… and improving every day. We believe in the ability of people to make decisions for themselves. And they usually make what I would consider to be very, very good decisions. “
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