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As a third, intense coronavirus wave from Michigan, several hospital leaders from across the state said Thursday that they have no choice but to postpone some surgical procedures to ensure they have the ability to take care of the crushing of sick COVID-19 patients who come through. their doors.
“We’re really on a very critical juncture,” said Bob Riney, chief operating officer and president of health care operations for Henry Ford Health System, who delayed some procedures Thursday and Friday at his Macomb hospital to manage the capacity crisis.
“After enduring the first two rises and the gains we have made over the past few months in reducing hospitalizations, none of us expected what we see today. That should make us all very worried – not just the health systems and the hospitals, but the people of all communities across Michigan. ‘
Michigan Medicine, the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor-based health care system, postponed a small number of non-emergency procedures early next week, as did Spectrum Health’s Grand Rapids hospitals.
Mercy Health Muskegon Medical Center canceled 13 procedures on Tuesday because “they were in a bottleneck,” said Dr. Rosalie Tocco-Bradley, chief clinical officer of Michigan, said.
“We do it now hospital by hospital, and we do it day by day,” Tocco-Bradley said of capacity building at Trinity’s eight hospitals in Michigan, which include the St Joseph Mercy and Mercy Health systems.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID-19 cases in the country on Thursday were the highest in 492.1 cases per 100,000 people. Sarah Lyon-Callo, the state epidemiologist and director of the Michigan Bureau of Epidemiology and Population Health, has now also hospitalized most coronavirus patients in the U.S. and stored them in intensive care units.
There is no sign that the boom will slow down anytime soon.
Hospitalizations double every 12-14 days, Lyon-Callo said. As of Thursday, 3,541 Michiganders have been hospitalized with confirmed cases of coronavirus – a 399% increase from 709 on February 25th.
The situation led to the chairman of the division for surgery in Michigan Medicine, dr. Justin Dimick, pleads for help from state and federal officials.
He tweeted: “We are starting to cancel surgical cases again to accommodate fast-accelerating Covid-19 admissions. The whole state is at high risk. Bars and restaurants are open. People are on point. No new restrictions. We have need help. “
Dr Mona Hanna-Attisha, the Flint pediatrician and public health advocate whose work helped uncover the Flint water crisis, also worked on Twitter to write about the urgency of the crisis.
She wrote: “Michigan: we need a vaccination and a two-week PAUSE in all other things.”
Andy Slavitt, senior adviser to the White House on COVID-19 response, would not commit on Wednesday to sending a larger quantity of COVID-19 vaccines to Michigan to destroy the spread of the virus in the hard-hit state.
On the contrary, he said in a newsletter that health officials could move the vaccine doses that the federal government has already allocated to Michigan to regions where there are hot spots.
“We are in close contact, both through the CDC and in direct talks with the governor and her team, about the resources that can best help at this time, as with other governors who find themselves in this situation,” Slavitt said.
“Nothing is off the table in terms of the kind of support we can provide, and we will keep the options open while staying close.”
Government Gretchen Whitmer said earlier this week that the third outbreak of the coronavirus is not a public policy issue that needs to be addressed with COVID-19 health restrictions. Instead, she said Michiganders wear masks, double social distance and hand wash while getting as many COVID-19 vaccines in their arms as possible.
In an appearance Tuesday night on CNN, Whitmer was asked whether the state should stop youth sports again until the current COVID-19 boom is under control.
“We stopped sports for a while, and of course there was a huge effort to come to our Capitol to protest against it,” Whitmer said.
‘We thought with these additional precautions – in terms of increased testing, increased ability to have these safety protocols, a reduced number of people who could attend these events – that we would be able to do it safely. But we see that the spread in teenage sports continues. And frankly, this is something we are very worried about. And so we do even more testing and possibly go further than we did. ‘
She later said: “This is perhaps one area in which we need to do more.”
CDC Director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, suggested that the state should now take steps, such as restricting indoor sports or interrupting indoor eateries, to curb the spread of the virus.
“I would advocate some sort of stronger mitigation strategies … to reduce community activity and reduce the wearing of masks,” Walensky said during a White House COVID-19 Response Team newsletter.
The Michigan Health and Hospital Association, which represents all 133 community hospitals in the state, has yet to urge lawmakers to tighten COVID-19 restrictions on the state curve.
“The situation in hospitals is evolving every day and our members are concerned about the rapid increase in hospitalizations, especially among younger residents,” said John Karasinski, director of communications for the association. “At the moment, we have not yet made any recommendations to the state about changing the status of public health orders in Michigan.
“There are currently requirements for individuals to wear masks, which we know mitigate the spread, and limit exposure to a large number of people outside their household. We call on people to step up their vigilance as it relates to “on these proven preventative measures that have already been put in place, while being vaccinated as quickly as possible. These things – improved compliance and vaccination prevention – will stop the rise of the very contagious and deadly variants that are spreading in Michigan.”
Hospital leaders from Beaumont Health, Sparrow, Ascension Michigan and McLaren Health Care told the Free Press that although their hospitals are now full, they have yet to restrict or reschedule non-urgent procedures.
Beaumont manages more than 700 inpatients at its eight Metro Detroit hospitals, which are the largest COVID-19 patient in the state, CEO John Fox told the Free Press on Wednesday.
“The real question is whether this curve continues, and we will start to surpass what we did in our second boom and approaching the first boom, it will be extremely difficult,” Fox said. “And it’s not a Beaumont problem, it’s really about the entire health care system in Michigan.”
If the volume of COVID-19 patients grows by another 30%, Fox said it would be too much to take care of coronavirus patients and all the other people who need medical help for other conditions.
“There is no way to continue from the other services and absorb that kind of growth,” he said.
State leaders need to “start looking at every tool in the toolbox to deal with it,” Fox said.
Dr. Ken Berkovitz, senior vice president of Ascension and executive director of the Department of Ascension Michigan, said if the trajectory of patients admitted to the hospital continues to climb, we may only have to temporarily like our elective work next week. hospitals.
Sufficiently trained staff – nurses and respiratory therapists and doctors – to care for all patients and still administer COVID-19 vaccines is one of the biggest challenges, hospital leaders said.
Many say that they are tired of dealing with 13 months of wave after wave of coronavirus infections, but that they also get sick themselves.
Trinity Health has more than 350 employees with COVID-19 or in quarantine due to exposure to a person with the virus, Tocco-Bradley said. And Henry Ford Health System has 249 employees who are unemployed because they tested positive, Riney said.
“Our health workers are exhausted,” Riney said. “They are not just tired. They are exhausted. Day after day, night after night, they have given the greatest care of patients throughout this pandemic under conditions we have never seen in our lifetime.
“They need our support once again if we ask them to continue this journey and deal with this upsurge. We know people are tired, but adhering to the safety precautions we have been protecting for months gives this virus new life, and it causes a surge in hospitalizations in cases.
“Before anyone chooses to go public without their masks, we ask you to stop and think about the nurses, the doctors, the respiratory therapists and the other medical professionals who are looking for a loved one,” a friend, neighbor or co-worker you lost to COVID.
‘Before you decide to go to a big event without social distance, we ask you to stop and think about the exhausted nurses, doctors, therapists and other medical professionals in the emergency department and those who care for a loved one. a friend, neighbor or colleague who has recovered from COVID.
“And for those who are still reluctant to be vaccinated, we ask you to stop and think about the same nurses, doctors, housekeepers and other members of the healthcare team who work 24/7 to help people who become ill with COVID. while being determined to keep all other clinical services open and to care for our communities so that no disease remains untreated. ‘
Although hospitals are full and staff are stretched to the limit, Riney and Tocco-Bradley stressed that people should not go to emergency departments or call their doctors if there is an emergency or a medical problem.
“One of the lessons we first learned is that people need health care, and that we do not want to turn away anyone or issues that we do not have to put off,” Tocco-Bradley said.
Riney agrees.
“I stress and emphasize that despite the increase, it is again much more dangerous for anyone to postpone the necessary care than to come to the hospital or clinic to get the health care you need,” he said. “This is especially important for anyone who has a medical emergency, chest pain, sloppy speech, dizziness. Our emergency departments, no matter how busy, will take good care of you and keep you safe, and the delays will only matter complicates for you. ‘
Free Press author Dave Boucher contributed to this report.
Contact Kristen Jordan Shamus: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @kristenshamus.