WASHINGTON, USA — Top doctors from Providence Health Care are speaking out about the surge of COVID-19 hospitalizations that is pushing local health care systems to their limit.
As of Thursday, Aug. 19, there were 216 new COVID cases reported with 164 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Spokane County. According to the Spokane Regional Health District, this is the highest level of people hospitalized since the begining of the pandemic.
Dr. Dan Getz, Chief Medical Officer for Providence Health Care, said the Eastern Washington region is filling up its ICU beds and it is getting harder to find placement for high-level care patients, especially those that live in a rural community.
Anyone who has a serious medical emergency that requires them to go to the emergency room is likely to experience a longer wait time, Getz said. The window to be transferred to a larger hospital for care is also shrinking.
"You may be stuck with, say a heart attack in a small rural ER and not be able to find a facility where they can put a stent in you. So now you've received kind of substandard care," Getz said.
Health care providers are also experiencing burnout due to seeing some preventable deaths from COVID-19 patients who are unvaccinated.
Getz's concerns come as North Idaho's major hospital, Kootenai Health, reported that it is nearing capacity amid a COVID-19 surge driven by the highly contagious delta variant.
The hospital said the delta variant is leading to more severe illness in a younger population, many of which have few factors for hospitalization. Patients age 18 to 60 now represent approximately 50% of the hospitalizations for COVID-19, compared to 20% during the winter surge.
Getz has also seen an increase in younger patients being hospitalized with serious cases of COVID-19 in Providence facilities, which includes pediatric patients who are having to be placed in the ICU. He said people should wear their masks and get vaccinated if they want the spread of COVID-19 to come to an end sooner rather than later.