If third wave of COVID hits, they are ready to surge, but need the community’s help
A PeaceHealth doctor says its Bellingham hospital is ready to handle a surge of COVID-19 patients should it need to as the U.S. grapples with a third wave of illness.
Cases have jumped as parts of the country hit new highs in a fall and winter surge that medical workers have been dreading.
With hospitalizations and deaths on the rise, hospitals in Utah said they’re going to have to ration ICU care that includes, in part, prioritizing younger COVID-19 patients over older ones in certain cases while Wisconsin has opened a field hospital and a hospital in Idaho that is full could be sending its patients to Washington state.
Washington and Whatcom County aren’t among the country’s hot spots, for now. But the state Department of Health warned on Wednesday, Oct. 28, that case counts and hospitalizations were rising throughout the state, with Western Washington increases “due to broad community spread, not driven by a single type of activity or setting.”
As for St. Joseph hospital, public behavior that includes social distancing and mask wearing is keeping the Bellingham hospital and its medical staff from becoming overwhelmed by people stricken with COVID-19, as hospitals elsewhere have been, according to Dr. Sudhakar Karlapudi, chief medical officer and chief patient safety officer for PeaceHealth in northwest Washington.
He said PeaceHealth was grateful to the community for its efforts.
Mask use helps
Science supports mask wearing, he said, adding that it was an important strategy in protecting against COVID-19.
Universal mask use from Aug. 26 to Jan. 1, 2021, could prevent more than 815,000 deaths from COVID-19 globally, he said, citing projections from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.
The institute defines mask use as the percentage of people who say they always wear a mask when going out in public, and universal mask use is when that hits 95% — as it does in Singapore.
In the U.S., universal mask use would save 93,495 deaths by reducing the transmission of the virus, according to the institute.
Mask use is at 65% in the U.S. and 72% in Washington state, according to the institute.
“(There is) no one intervention that is so inexpensive,” Karlapudi said to The Bellingham Herald in an interview. “The benefit is staggering.”
Continuing to follow such measures will help the hospital with its plans, according to Karlapudi
“We have a lot of surge bandwidth,” he said, “but we need the support of the community.”
In terms of surge capacity, Karlapudi said the hospital has 12 beds in its intensive care unit and could go up to at least 50 ICU beds if needed.
The hospital has enough staff and equipment to handle a surge, including adequate supplies of PPE and the drugs dexamethasone and Remdesivir for treatment, he said, adding that its plans include redundancies in case staff are sickened.
“Overall, we feel we are prepared,” Karlapudi said.
Caregiver tracing
As for how many hospital workers have been sickened in the seven-plus months of its pandemic response, Karlapudi said 38 caregivers have tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19.
PeaceHealth calls all of its hospital employees caregivers and said that, as far as they’re aware of, none of those who tested positive were medical staff.
“Although it is impossible to know with 100% certainty where, how and from whom the caregivers contracted the virus, from our contact tracing, which starts immediately once the test result is known, it appears that the vast majority of transmissions that led to a positive case came from outside of the hospital,” he explained.
He added: “Our investigation can confirm two things we know with certainty. One, there has been no caregiver-to-patient transmission. And two, there has been one on-the-job caregiver-to-caregiver transmission. We also know that the latter transmission occurred in a non-patient care area.”
Karlapudi said PeaceHealth has been successful in limiting transmissions within the hospital because it has plenty of PPE for employees and “perhaps more importantly, we have rigid controls in place to ensure that caregivers are trained on how to accurately use the PPE to protect themselves and others.”
“Additionally, we have applied physical distancing standards in all areas of the hospital, including break rooms and meeting rooms,” he said.
Hospital supplies
Early in the pandemic there was a great deal of focus, and concern, over whether hospitals had enough ventilators for seriously ill patients.
Karlapudi said not many COVD-19 patients in Whatcom County have required ventilators during the first two waves of illness.
In the most recent situation report filed on Tuesday, Oct. 27, PeaceHealth said one ventilator was being used on a patient with COVID-19, and the hospital had 40 ventilators available.
What about a field hospital?
“Should an external site to care for patients be required, Whatcom County Public Health Department would take the lead,” Karlapudi said. “PeaceHealth would support as necessary.”
He also encouraged Whatcom County residents to protect themselves against the flu, so they don’t face a possible “double whammy” of illness.
“We know that the COVID virus can infect you when you have the flu,” Karlapudi said. “While we wait for a COVID vaccine, now is the time to get a flu shot.”
Holiday travel
The increase in new cases of COVID-19 come as Whatcom County residents grapple with how to gather during Thanksgiving and Christmas and whether they should travel to see friends and family.
Karlapudi said people should turn to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website for guidance, specifically its section on travel that touches on getting there by plane, car or boat
He did share a few thoughts:
▪ It’s important to first check the prevalence and activity of COVID-19 cases where you’re going. That might alter your plans.
▪ Know your own health. “Are you at high risk of getting serious disease because of COVID?” he said. If you are, you should ask yourself whether you need to travel.
▪ People think it will be low risk to drive to their destination. But there’s risk in filling up your tank along the way because you’re touching a surface that could’ve been used by someone else.
He said people should wash their hands every time they touch a surface that someone else might have touched, wear a mask and don’t touch your face while you’re traveling.
Those are simple actions but they can be tough things for people to do, Karlapudi said, adding that a mask helps because it acts as a barrier against touching your face.
Before you go
If you’re debating whether to travel to see family as the holidays approach or trying to figure out whether it’s safe to gather together, you can get some help from the Washington State Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Learn more at:
▪ https://bit.ly/3e9qCdM. The information is written in English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Korean and Vietnamese.
This story was originally published November 1, 2020 at 7:00 AM.
