COLUMBUS, Ind. — Columbus Regional Hospital is at its most overwhelmed point of the pandemic so far as officials struggle to handle a flood of patients amid the worst coronavirus wave in a year, which they say has “severely put at risk” their ability to care for patients.
At times over the past week, patients at CRH have been placed in beds along hallways as staff wait for rooms to become available. Nurses, doctors and others are working extra shifts to try to keep pace.
The hospital’s intensive care unit has been bursting at the seams, with 14 to 15 patients for much of the week, forcing staff to place its ICU on diversion “a few times.” Diversion means the hospital notifies state health officials they are unable to take more critically ill patients and those patients need to be “diverted” to another facility.
But with hospitals filling up across the state and Midwest, officials are finding hardly anywhere to divert patients to.
COVID-19 hospitalizations at CRH have continued to climb as well, nearly reaching a record high over the past week, with 58 this past Friday — one shy of the all-time record 59 on Dec. 2, 2020.
The dire situation at CRH reached yet another fever pitch Thursday morning, with 198 total hospitalizations — the most ever in the hospital’s 104-year history, officials said. It was the second time this week that record had been broken.
And there’s no end in sight as COVID-19 continues to hammer the local health care system even before the omicron variant has been detected in Indiana.
“We feel somewhat defeated,” said CRH spokeswoman Kelsey DeClue. “It’s really hard right now because we still don’t anticipate this slowing down anytime soon.”
For the complete story and photos, see Friday’s Republic.
