UAB is housing some cancer patients in nearby hotels after surgery due to the increase in COVID-19 after the holidays.
“Patients who are usually only watched at night and then go home the next morning use hotels that are close to the hospital,” UAB hospital chief executive Anthony Patterson told a news conference on Wednesday.
“It allows us to continue to meet the needs of our patients,” he said.
As of Wednesday, UAB has 294 COVID-19 patients. Of these, 210 were positive with the disease. Another 84 recovered from COVID, such as lung scars and respiratory distress syndrome, which builds up fluid in the lungs.
Dr. Rachel Lee, an UAB epidemiologist treating COVID-19 patients, said the increase in post-Christmas hospitalizations includes an increase in young people struggling with the disease. She said the hospital has not yet seen an increase in the number of New Year’s Eve holidays.
Another important challenge facing UAB is the treatment of COVID patients who need to be hospitalized for a long period of time after their illness.
“Many patients are no longer contagious, but they are still in the ventilator,” Lee said. “They are still fighting for their lives. This is the heartbreaking thing for us. We do everything we can to get them home and to their loved ones, and it’s incredibly difficult. ”
Patterson, the chief executive, said the hospital prioritizes life-saving elective procedures, such as cancer treatments, over surgeries such as knee replacements.
UAB houses some of its cancer patients after the operation by reusing hospital rooms.
“What we need to pay close attention to is the available bed capacity we have so that these patients can have a place to go after they (the operating room) are gone,” Patterson said.
Because UAB has little space, some cancer surgeries are delayed by a few days.
COVID hospitalizations at UAB, about double last month, are also causing delays in hospital transfers from rural parts of the state.
UAB typically serves as a resource for hospitals in Alabama, as the only Level 1 trauma center in the state. It offers treatments that patients cannot receive elsewhere, such as transplants and serious trauma care after car accidents.
“During the pandemic, we are so far away that it is slowing down, and in some cases it may expect us to wait a day or two before we can accept the transfer of a patient who needs to come to UAB,” Patterson said.
In the conversation with UAB’s COVID-19 patients who spread the disease among grandparents and other family members, Dr. Lee many say that they experience guilt and stigma.
She encouraged Alabamians to take precautions. “Is it really worth eating inside restaurants if we know the hospital is struggling and doing rationing?”