Columbus Regional Hospital is looking at ways to free up space and staff as hospitalizations for COVID-19 and other illnesses are pushing the hospital toward its limits.
On Friday morning, CRH reached a staffed occupancy rate of 97% to 98%, the hospital said. The rate has not fallen below 95% all week.
The rapid influx in patients has prompted officials to start laying the groundwork for a spill-over intensive care unit, looking at how to reallocate staff, redistributing unused space and considering whether there needs to be a pause for certain elective procedures to preserve resources, said CRH spokeswoman Kelsey DeClue.
The spill-over ICU, which would likely be located in the cardiac catheterization area on the second floor of the hospital, is not yet up and running, DeClue said.
Hospital officials have not yet made a decision on which procedures would be postponed, if any.
In the end, the hospital system’s capacity to treat patients boils down to the number of available beds and having doctors and nurses available to staff them, CRH officials said.
Currently, both are under increasing strain, but CRH is able to accommodate the patient load it is facing, DeClue said.
“We’re at an incredibly high census,” DeClue said.
But chief among the hospital system’s concerns is COVID-19 — which doctors say is a very preventable illness through vaccination but yet still accounted for 20% of the hospital’s in-patient census Friday morning.
On Thursday, 38 people were hospitalized for COVID-19 at CRH, tied for the highest total since Jan. 12, according to hospital records.
By Friday morning, 34 people were hospitalized — including seven people who were listed in critical condition, the hospital said.
However, CRH officials expected that number to go up as the day went on as numerous patients were in the emergency room Friday morning with symptoms consistent with COVID-19.
This week, at least one child has been hospitalized at CRH with COVID-19, as well as at least one adult in their late teens, three people in their 20s, three people in their 30s and five people in the 40s, according to hospital records.
CRH is continuing to urge people to get vaccinated. The Centers for Disease Control have said that vaccination does prevent serious illness and hospitalizations.
“It’s just this added strain,” DeClue said. “We should not be where we are.”
“Every case of COVID that we can keep out of the hospital, it limits spread in our community and it keeps the bed for (non-COVID patients) that need that bed,” she added. “…A lot of these other things that come through our doors are not as preventable (as COVID-19).
The update from the local hospital come as COVID-19 hospitalizations rise across the state, forcing other hospitals to suspend elective procedures or turn away patients, as state health officials warn that Indiana is entering the “darkest time” of the pandemic.
On Thursday, Indiana University Health — the largest hospital system — said it will be stopping all inpatient non-emergency surgeries as the state faces a growing surge of COVID-19 hospitalizations, The Associated Press reported.
Indiana University Health announced Thursday that the surgery suspension would start Monday. The decision comes after IU Health said last week it was cutting such surgeries by half.
“The surge of COVID-19 patient volumes has continued to accelerate at a rapid pace, and this temporary change is needed to further relieve pressure on our care teams and to free up space for critically ill patients,” IU Health said in a statement.
Statewide, 2,443 people were hospitalized Thursday with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19, up from 371 on July 3, according to the Indiana Department of Health.
In Indiana’s District 8, a seven-county area that includes Bartholomew County designated by the Indiana Department of Health, COVID-19 hospitalizations have surged to their highest levels since this past winter, according to state figures.
On Thursday, there were 130 COVID-19 hospitalizations in the region, up from 12 on July 15. Nearly 30% of the district’s ICU beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients, up from 1.8% on July 23.
Locally, CRH says it will not be turning away patients who need care and will “triage that patient and figure out where the best site of care is going to be,” DeClue said.
“What hospitals are wrestling with now is that we don’t have the ability among each other to collaborate as freely with sites of care as we did before this latest crisis has befallen us,” DeClue said.
“…The biggest strain that hospitals are being put through now is this concept of diversion. It just doesn’t as easily exist anymore because we’re all feeling the same strain.”
“You can’t divert patients if there’s nowhere for them to go,” DeClue added.
