Here’s how Bellingham’s hospital will handle a surge in serious COVID-19 patients
Bellingham’s St. Joseph hospital is preparing for a possible pandemic surge and has plans to expand its COVID-19 unit to accommodate a tripling of seriously ill patients if necessary, PeaceHealth’s chief medical officer said Tuesday, Dec. 8.
Dr. Sudhakar Karlapudi told the Whatcom County Council in an online meeting that the hospital has staff, protective gear, bed space, ventilators and medicine to handle 70 patients on ventilators with the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
“If we get to 70, we’ll have the staff,” Karlapudi said.
Karlapudi said that St. Joseph, with 241 total patient beds, has a special COVID-19 ward that is sealed and has special pressurization and air circulation to contain the virus, he said.
Current capacity is 22 beds, and that can be expanded in “compartment-like units” to 44 beds.
“We have (expansion) plans after that which will require some construction,” Karlapudi said.
Further, St. Joseph hospital is part of the PeaceHealth group of medical centers that share equipment, supplies, medicines and staff, he said.
And some staff are being cross-trained in COVID-specific tasks, such as operating ventilators and adapting to the special safety precautions to avoid spreading the new coronavirus.
COVID patients are staying in the hospital an average of seven to eight days — four days for most patients and 14 days for seriously ill patients, he said.
Only 15 of the hospital’s 22 COVID-19 beds are filled as of Tuesday, the hospital reported to The Bellingham Herald. The hospital saw a pandemic-high of 21 COVID-19 patients on Dec. 1.
Two patients require critical care and one of them is intubated and breathing with the help of a ventilator, Karlapudi said.
But COVID-19 cases are rising exponentially in Whatcom County, said Erika Lautenbach, Watcom County health director.
Speaking at an online media briefing Tuesday, Lautenbach said health officials are seeing 30 to 40 new COVID-19 cases daily, an infection rate of 254 cases per 100,000 people — triple the rate of last summer.
“We continue to see increases and they have steadily increased,” Lautenbach said.
Many of the cases have been traced to patients who flouted health guidelines and traveled or hosted social gatherings for Thanksgiving, and health officials fear a similar pattern will emerge for the winter holidays.
But she was confident in the hospital’s ability to handle an influx of new and critical patients.
“The hospital is well-supplied with competent, well-trained staff for a surge,” Lautenbach said. “They are well-supplied with PPE, with therapeutic medicines for COVID-19, and with supplies including ventilators.”
Meanwhile, both Karlapudi and Lautenbach urged Whatcom County residents to practice the measures that have proven effective in limiting COVID-19 spread:
▪ Practice good hand hygiene;
▪ Avoid touching your face — especially your eyes, nose and mouth;
▪ Wear a mask or face covering;
▪ Keep a “social distance” of 6 feet from others.
