KU hospital seeing record number of COVID-19 cases
Hospital beds in Kansas are starting to fill up rapidly, according to state officials.
Gov. Laura Kelly said Tuesday afternoon that cases are spiking up, hospital beds are filling up and some schools are discussing return to remote learning.
Meanwhile, in Kansas City, Kansas, the University of Kansas Health System reported its highest number ever of COVID-19 patients. There were 72 active COVID-19 patients and another 36 in the recovery phase who were in the hospital, for a total of 108. Twenety-five of the active patients were in the intensive care unit.
Dr. Lee Norman, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said at a news conference at 4 p.m. Tuesday that he has been hearing from small and large hospitals across the state.
The KDHE is tracking hospital beds and intensive care unit beds across the state, as well as staffed beds.
Dr. Norman said the KDHE has regular communication with hospitals to see the complete picture on staffing and bed capacity.
Currently, hospitals are working on bonus programs to pick up additional shifts, he said. Transfer of patients is an area of concern, he added.
Kansas hospitals are receiving calls from multiple states, asking them to accept COVID-19 patients because of bed or staffing capacity, according to Dr. Norman.
He said ideally, hospitals would try to “surge within their footprints.” For example, they might try to convert a surgical room into an ICU room. It would be ideal not to transfer patients from one facility to another, he said.
But building onto the facility or putting up a tent outside to handle a surge of patients does not solve staffing problems, which they are most worried about, he added.
“Hospital admissions are the result of community spread,” Dr. Norman said. “We need community support to push down the spread of the virus. We must protect our frontline workers.”
He said it’s important for residents to get a flu vaccine, as that will help reduce illnesses that sometimes take up hospital bed space.
On Monday the KDHE reported 103,553 total cumulative COVID-19 cases. The number of cases rose 5,920 from Friday to Monday, according to figures from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Gov. Kelly on Tuesday said Wichita hospitals are starting to fill up, and all the 208 ICU beds at two major Wichita hospitals are full, with COVID-19 patients occupying 80 of them.
“If a hospital is at capacity for bed space, particularly in the ICU, we run the risk of Kansans not having access to medical care when they need it the most,” Gov. Kelly said.
She said wearing masks, social distancing and avoiding gatherings are important currently to slowing the spread of the virus. She commended Lyon and Jefferson county commissions for reversing and voting for mask mandates.
While Gov. Kelly wanted a statewide mask mandate, in her recent meetings with Republican leaders she was asked to wait longer on a mandate while the state’s leaders meet with local leaders to implement local orders. The legislative leaders earlier this year blocked Gov. Kelly’s statewide mandate from taking effect, saying that counties had the right to decide whether they would have mask mandates.
If they can’t come up with a consensus that works locally, they will have to revisit it, she said Tuesday.
“As cases continue to increase, it’s critical that we implement common-sense steps,” Gov. Kelly said.
The governor’s multi-faceted approach to slowing the virus includes a unified testing strategy, working with local leaders and public education.
Gov. Kelly, congratulating President-elect Joe Biden, said her team has already had conversations with the Biden transition team, to make sure they are in a position to continue to have an open line of communication with the federal government to leverage the resources necessary to keep Kansans healthy and to protect the economy.
On Tuesday, Wyandotte County reported 112 additional COVID-19 cases, for a cumulative total of 8,964. No additional deaths were reported, for a cumulative total of 167.
The daily COVID hospitalization rate in the nine-county area, as reported by MARC’s regional COVID-19 hub, is 604. Last week it was 451. It is an increase of 153 per day.
On Tuesday morning, KU Health System reported 72 active COVID-19 patients, including 25 in the ICU, and another 36 COVID-19 patients in the recovery phase and still in the hospital. It was the highest number of COVID-19 patients yet at the hospital.
Dr. Steve Stites, chief medical officer at KU Health System, said there were not enough staffed beds in Greater Kansas City. While all the beds at KU Health System were staffed, there is a concern that as COVID-19 numbers continue to rise, that it could affect care.
It is a busy time of year for hospitals, he said, as some patients want to get procedures done before the end of the year, and there is sometimes a small influx of flu patients.
The hospital has a few choices right now, neither of which are ideal. They can stop taking transfers or slow them down, which is not the best answer, Dr. Stites said. Or they could stop doing elective surgeries or cut them back, also not good, but they are looking at it.
Typically, outpatient surgery doesn’t take up bed space, just the surgeries of those who will be there three or four days. They will have to discharge as early as they can, but not if the patient is not ready, he added.
Earlier, they had a backlog, as some nursing homes were not taking COVID-19 patients, and patients had to be discharged to nursing homes.
Many hospitals are presently trying to hire as many staff as they can, and hire nurses who work for independent staffing agencies.
They also spend time trying to educate the public on infection control, he said.
“It works, we have to take care of each other,” he said.
“When you ignore the rules, the curve escalates, and we get in trouble,” he said.
Answering a question about people intentionally trying to get COVID-19 for herd immunity, Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control at KU Health System, said, “It’s dangerous. We don’t even know you can’t be reinfected.”
They don’t know how long this immunity would last, if they would get the disease again and if it’s going to be worse, he said. The idea of intentionally trying to get COVID-19 is not based on science, he said.
Dr. Stites said the schools of those who wrote a report with the herd immunity idea have discredited the report.
“It’s immoral to suggest that, because you will cause death and destruction you don’t need to do,” Dr. Stites said. “All you have to do is wear a mask.”
With that theory of getting herd immunity by intentionally getting the coronavirus, there could be 200,000 persons infected at once, and a million people could die, he said. Health care resources would be overwhelmed and people having heart attacks and strokes would not be able to get into the hospital, and would die, too, he said. It is a terrible idea.
“Please listen and don’t believe sketchy ideas written by people who don’t understand health care,” he said.
The doctors also discussed the emergency use authorization of monoclonal antibodies, and said KU Health System has been approved for it. They are probably weeks away from it.
He urged people to continue wearing their masks while they are waiting for the new vaccines that are coming out, probably next year.
Masking, distancing, and not meeting in groups will be important this winter, Dr. Hawkinson said.
Dr. Hawkinson said there is a website that helps people assess their risks for attending an event, given the event size and location. The website gives a risk level, an estimated chance that at least one COVID-19 positive individual will be present at an event in a county, given the size of the event.
For example, for an event of 50 people in Wyandotte County, there is a 63 percent chance that at least one COVID-19 positive person will be present, according to the map. For Johnson County, the rate is 72 percent, according to the map. The map originated at Georgia Institute of Technology, Biological Sciences.
The map is online at https://covid19risk.biosci.gatech.edu/?fbclid=IwAR1CU888E1xUWzW5t2_P7xhLexpZ9p4L3MXeB8z18bkKvs4zW7mI3cdLOuU.
Free COVID-19 testing available on Wednesday
A free COVID-19 pop-up test will continue from 3 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 11, at Faith Deliverance Family Worship Center, 3043 State Ave., Kansas City, Kansas.
The pop-up test is through Vibrant Health and the Wyandotte County Health Equity Task Force.
UG Health Department COVID-19 tests will be available on Wednesday, Veterans Day, at 7836 State Ave. The site had to close early on Tuesday because of increased demand for testing.
The Unified Government Health Department has moved its COVID-19 testing from the 6th and Ann location to the former Kmart at 78th and State Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas. The hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Tests are free for those who live or work in Wyandotte County. The tests are now saliva COVID-19 tests.
The tests now are open to asymptomatic people as well as those who have symptoms or have been exposed to COVID-19. Check with the UG Health Department’s Facebook page to see if there have been any changes in the schedule. Bring something that shows that you live or work in Wyandotte County, such as a utility bill.
The Health Department building at 6th and Ann will be closed on Wednesday, Veterans Day.
For more information about the new testing site at the former Kmart location, visit https://alpha.wycokck.org/files/assets/public/health/documents/covid/10092020_newtestingsitewyco.pdf.
The governor’s news conference is online at https://www.facebook.com/GovLauraKelly/videos/417109765963617.
The KU doctors’ news conference is online at https://www.facebook.com/kuhospital/videos/298253854590416.
The UG COVID-19 webpage is at https://alpha.wycokck.org/Coronavirus-COVID-19-Information.
The KDHE’s COVID-19 webpage is at https://www.coronavirus.kdheks.gov/.
The KC Region COVID-19 Hub dashboard is at https://marc2.org/covidhub/.
The CDC’s COVID-19 webpage is at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html.