Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
More People Need ICU Care In Alabama Than There Are Beds Available
The Washington Post: Alabama Has ‘Negative’ ICU Beds Free As U.S. Hospitals Struggle With Surge Of Cases
There are more intensive care patients in Alabama than there are ICU beds in the state to treat them. The state’s hospital system has a “negative” number of ICU beds available as it enters “uncharted territory,” Alabama Hospital Association President Don Williamson told local television station WSFA. Hospitals in the South have for weeks been overrun by covid-19 patients as cases surged across the Sun Belt. But now, health-care workers across the country are also struggling to manage the waves of cases brought on by the delta variant. (Pietsch, 8/18)
Anchorage Daily News: Anchorage ICUs At Capacity As A Surge Of COVID-19 Patients Has Hospitals Under Stress And Scrambling
The people caring for Alaska’s most vulnerable patients say a new flood of COVID-19 cases is stressing the state’s already compromised intensive-care system at levels they’ve never seen before. Alaska’s ICU system is maxed out — too many patients and not enough staffed beds, medical professionals from the state’s top doctor to floor nurses said this week. Summer is normally a busy time for hospitals, as tourists, vehicle wrecks and outdoor recreation crank up patient numbers, or rural residents put off medical care to pull in salmon for the winter at fish camp. (Hollander, 8/17)
AP: Idaho Warns Of COVID Patient Surge, Hospitals 'Overwhelmed'
Hospitals are reporting record numbers of COVID-19 patients on ventilators, public health officials have reactivated a “crisis standards of care” task force and epidemiologists are warning that based on the current rate of spread, Idaho could see as many as 30,000 new cases a week by mid-October. Idaho Department of Health and Welfare officials made the announcements during an online news conference Tuesday afternoon. Public health administrator Elke Shaw-Tulloch said they were “extremely alarmed” by the surge. (Boone, 8/18)
Oklahoman: Oklahoma Health Systems Beg More People To Get COVID Vaccine And Mask Up
Four Oklahoma health systems came together Tuesday to beg Oklahomans to get vaccinated and wear masks as hospitals are being crushed under the strain of the latest COVID-19 surge. Representatives from OU Health, SSM Health, Integris Health and Mercy painted a grim picture of what’s going on inside Oklahoma hospitals’ walls: People diagnosed with COVID-19 now are being admitted to hospitals at higher rates than other points during the pandemic, bed space is scarce and there’s fewer staff now to care for patients than last winter. Patients are younger and often sicker than they were before, they said. (Branham, 8/17)
Billings Gazette: Billings Hospitals Struggling With Capacity As COVID Cases Climb
Hospitals are having to manage high volumes of COVID-19 patients as bed capacity moves into the red zone in 13 of Montana’s 56 counties. Both St. Vincent Healthcare and Billings Clinic entered "bed divert" status on Monday, according to St. Vincent Healthcare’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Michael Bush. Bed divert is a temporary status for health care facilities that informs ambulances the hospital is at capacity and cannot take any more patients. St. V’s was able to move off bed divert early Tuesday, but is holding several patients in the emergency department until space opens in the hospital, Bush said. This practice has been in place in the last several weeks as COVID cases and hospitalizations surge. (Schabacker, 8/17)
Bangor Daily News: COVID-19 Hospitalizations In Maine Reach Highest Level In 2 Months
The number of Mainers currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in Maine reached the highest level in more than two months on Tuesday as the virus continues to spread mostly among unvaccinated people. As of Tuesday, 84 Mainers were hospitalized with COVID-19, up from 42 two weeks ago and 27 a month ago. It marks the highest single-day hospitalization number since June 2. (Piper, 8/17)
Philadelphia Inquirer: Coronavirus Spread Is High And Hospitalizations Are Rising Across The Philadelphia Region
The Philadelphia region — except for Delaware County — was seeing high coronavirus transmission rates as of Tuesday, according to the CDC, and local health officials said they are continuing to watch rising hospitalizations, particularly among the unvaccinated. Throughout the pandemic, rising case counts have precipitated an increase in hospitalizations. This summer, the spread of the highly transmissible delta variant has not deviated from the sobering trend, with most patients being unvaccinated. (McCarthy, 8/18)
Stat: Unvaccinated Deaths Overwhelm Health Workers In Covid Hot Zones
Bren Ingle watched through a set of twin glass doors as her patient drew his final, halting breaths, a terrifyingly long pause separating each one. She could hear every haunted exhalation he made, a sound halfway between a snore and a scream of pain. It was not her first such vigil. But the knowledge that the patient was unvaccinated made it, somehow, bleaker than the rest. (Facher, 8/18)
