‘We still are at that cusp’ — Bellingham hospital asks for help avoiding a COVID crisis
PeaceHealth Regional Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sudhakar Karlapudi has seen the same headlines you may have scrolled through about hospitals around the country being overrun with COVID-19 patients in recent weeks.
Pick a state on the map — Idaho, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Mississippi, North Dakota, Kentucky, Nevada, California — and you likely can find stories about hospitals, large and small, reaching crisis levels and struggling to keep up with the most recent surge.
Even hospitals in other communities in Washington state are either nearing or at capacity with a steady stream of people experiencing severe COVID-related symptoms coming through the door.
Karlapudi says he desperately doesn’t want to see that here in Whatcom County.
“We don’t want to experience a situation like they have in other states,” Karlapudi told The Bellingham Herald. “ We don’t want to experience that agony, that grief. It’s too painful.”
The Washington State Department of Health in a release Wednesday stated that hospital capacity across the state is currently “stressed” due to the August and early September surge in COVID cases and related hospitalizations and that it has taken steps to “stretch resources and mitigate current challenges.”
But Karlapudi says the state Department of Health and health care professionals cannot do it alone.
Each of us has a role in whether Whatcom County starts seeing many of the hardships many hospitals around the state and country are experiencing.
“I want to create awareness. I want to create a sense of urgency. I do not want to create a sense of hysteria,” Karlapudi said. “PeaceHealth and our caregivers are going to be prepared for most of the challenges we are going to face with COVID. ... But I think, without the help of the community, we will not be 100% successful.
“With the help of the community, we can provide the best quality of care for all Whatcom residents. We do not want to be in a situation like some of our neighboring states, where literally they don’t have beds in hospitals, where crisis standards of care are being applied. We don’t want to find ourselves in that situation, and I think if we continue our current practices of large gatherings and not masking in public, we will find ourselves at a point of crisis.”
Whatcom County has had 644 COVID-related hospitalizations during the pandemic, according to the Washington State Department of Health COVID-19 Dashboard on Friday, Sept. 10. Of those, nearly a quarter (21.6%) have been reported since Aug. 1, and nearly 10% (60 hospitalizations) were reported in the first week and a half of September.
Whatcom’s highest weekly hospitalization rate of the pandemic was 14.9 COVID-related hospitalizations per 100,000 people between Jan. 6 and 12, according to the state’s epidemiolgoical curves.
With the recent surge in hospitalizations, the county will near and could even break that mark once last week’s data is finalized, state data shows.
On Friday, St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham, which is operated by PeaceHealth, reported it was treating 36 COVID patients, only three fewer than its pandemic record 39 one Aug. 30.
Though the hospital continues to be able to answer the challenge of its increased COVID patient load, Karlapudi admits he’s concerned that things could get worse.
“We still are at that cusp of risk, where we could have a large inflow of COVID patients because of gatherings that have happened in the recent past,” he said. “We are at risk of that still happening.
“By not going to gatherings, by masking in most places, by getting vaccinations, at least we can prevent a future surge that could happen in Whatcom.”
Karlapudi once again reiterated the importance of getting vaccinated to not only prevent the likelihood of contracting COVID, but also significantly decrease the possibility of its most series effects, which can lead to hospitalization, long ICU stays and even death.
But he said even masking up in public, strong social distancing, avoiding large social gatherings — particularly indoors — and hand washing can play a role in lessening COVID’s impact on St. Joseph hospital.
“This hospital needs your help,” Karlapudi said. “Your hospital needs your help, the doctors need your help, the nurses need your help in making sure we can continue to safely provide care.
“We can’t do this alone. We’ve never been able to do this alone. We are dependent on our community members to do what is right, which is to protect our fellow community members from getting the disease and helping the hospital continue to care for people.”
This story was originally published September 12, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
