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GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Spectrum Health has expanded its intensive care unit (ICU) by 30% in the past two weeks as the number of coronavirus patients continues to rise rapidly at its 14 hospitals in the region.
“If you had asked us a month ago, how would things be with so many ICU patients, we would have said we’re pretty full,” said Dr. Darryl Elmouchi, president of Spectrum Health West Michigan .
“The good news – and our teams have been really spectacular – we have opened up additional intensive care capacity in our hospitals at the point, while we are very busy we have additional capacity and if necessary we can increase the capacity. .
Elmouchi made his comments Thursday, November 19, at an online press conference.
Concerns over hospital capacity and adequate staffing have grown in recent weeks as COVID-19 cases have increased statewide. Last week, Spectrum CEO Tina Freese Decker said she expected Spectrum and other Michigan hospitals to reach capacity within days.
The number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 at hospitals in Spectrum had risen to 345 by Thursday afternoon. This represents 289 people on November 11 and only 50 cases in early October.
In Thursday’s press conference, Elmouchi said Spectrum now has “other beds in our hospitals that can really function as intensive care units with the proper monitoring equipment.”
Discussing staffing, he said that since the start of November, more than 700 of Spectrum’s 31,000 employees have tested positive for COVID-19.
“From a staffing standpoint, we’re doing fine now,” Elmouchi said. “But just like the community, we have a lot of employees who have contracted COVID-19 in the community and therefore call sick.”
He later added, “And given the acuity and volume of the patients, we are stretched out and we are watching this very closely.”
Some staff are having to work extra shifts to deal with the outbreak of COVID-19 patients, said Shawn Ulreich, chief nurse and senior vice president of clinical operations at Spectrum Health West Michigan.
As COVID-19-related hospitalizations increase at Spectrum, the number of people testing positive for the virus is also increasing.
The health system’s average positivity rate over the past seven days is now 18.6%.
It’s about 14% a week ago, 10% two weeks ago and less than 3% two months ago.
“The situation has definitely worsened since last week,” Elmouchi said.
Statewide, there are 311,041 confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19 in Michigan and 8,717 confirmed or probable deaths, according to the latest state data.
In Kent County, there are 27,049 confirmed or probable cases and 277 confirmed or probable deaths, according to state data.
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