Columbus Regional Hospital reached full capacity earlier this week due to record-high COVID-19 hospitalizations and a “big jump” in the number of quarantined staff.
On Wednesday, a record 59 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 — the highest so far during the pandemic and up nearly five-fold since Nov. 1.
That number had ticked down to 44 people by Friday morning, but hospital officials predicted that number would rise over the course of the day.
Among the people hospitalized with COVID-19 on Friday morning was a child, who was listed in stable condition and receiving treatment on the pediatric floor of the hospital, CRH officials said.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
CRH confirmed that the child was the first local pediatric COVID-19 hospitalization, but declined to provide the age of the child, citing privacy laws.
Hospital officials are getting increasingly concerned as COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations continue to climb statewide with no end in sight.
CRH reached full capacity on Wednesday for the first time during the pandemic, though occupancy has since dipped down to a more “manageable” level and stood at 89% on Friday morning, CRH officials said.
CRH’s capacity to treat patients depends on the number of available beds and having doctors and nurses available to staff them.
Currently, a record 55 CRH staff are quarantining due to testing positive for COVID-19 or having symptoms consistent with the coronavirus, up from 36 a week ago, the hospital said.
“It’s certainly scary because we don’t see this being a trend that we just had to deal with this week,” said CRH spokeswoman Kelsey DeClue. “This is going to continue. The numbers are going to continue to rise.”
The record number of hospitalizations at CRH came as overwhelmed hospitals across the country convert chapels, cafeterias, waiting rooms, hallways, even a parking garage into patient treatment areas as the pandemic rages across America, according to The Associated Press.
Locally, those scenes have not been playing out so far, CRH officials said.
But if CRH runs out of beds and staff, the hospital will likely use a “case-by-case approach” to patient care and will be “calling around” to other medical centers in search of open beds and available staff.
“If you come to us, we’re still going to care for you,” DeClue said. “We’re going to open the door to you, and if we can’t physically keep you, we’re still going to take you into our emergency department, we’re going get you in a stable condition to transfer you to a place that can care for you.”
CRH has been in “constant communication” with hospitals in other counties, but “they’ve all been running tight,” DeClue said.
While CRH may have enough beds and supplies for triage tents and auxiliary care sites, the hospital system may not have the staff, DeClue said.
“In order to properly care for people, we have to have the (staff) regardless of where the bed is placed, and that is what is most concerning to not just us, but hospitals across the board,” DeClue said. “No matter where we have to put extra beds, we have to have those people to care for (patients).”
“And we just don’t right now — that’s what’s really concerning,” DeClue said.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Quarantine guidance” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Bartholomew County health officials are urging people who have tested positive or been exposed to COVID-19 to continue to quarantine 14 days despite new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that shortened recommended quarantine time to 10 days.
Local officials have also said that using rapid tests to shorten the length of quarantines for asymptomatic contacts "would limit our supplies" and "hinder our ability to test ill patients."
"I feel that shortening quarantine at this time would increase the potential for transmission of the virus," said Brian Niedbalski, Bartholomew County health officer. "With our local COVID activity, this would not be ideal."
[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”For more coverage” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
For more on the COVID-19 pandemic, see Page A3.
[sc:pullout-text-end]
