Covid and Hospitals: How are things now?

[CrunchRN]

Just curious. Here in DFW I see hospitalizations are rising to 14%. How are things in the hospitals? Are things relatively normal? No more furloughs?

Please share. I am not in acute care, but I am of course very interested in the effects on acute care staff.

[subee, MSN, CRNA]

On 12/23/2021 at 7:41 AM, CrunchRN said:

And, this morning I read the peak seems to be falling off sharply in Africa already. Wow. Of course, who knows what will happen here. 

I read so many articles while on the eliptical I forget which came from where, but one meta analysis said that 90% or more of the people they looked at tested positive without any symptoms. So many reports from such short term experience it is hard to really source them all in a logical way.

 

 

People in South Africa get to live a large part of their lives outdoors now.  This is not the rule in North America where most of us are indoors until Spring.

[chare]

Quote

At Duke University Hospital, the number of COVID-19 patients has jumped by 42% since Monday, a surge that is straining medical care and threatens to worsen with the New Year’s holiday.

Roughly 400 Duke employees have tested positive for the virus over the last week, though not all of them clinical staff. But with 150 of them testing COVID-positive on Wednesday alone — the highest number for the pandemic — the hospital is scrambling to care for the crush of new patients.

[...]

COVID cases nearly double at Duke Hospital this week, hundreds of staff infected

And, Duke Health previously reported that their staff was nearly 100% vaccinated.

[subee, MSN, CRNA]

37 minutes ago, chare said:

COVID cases nearly double at Duke Hospital this week, hundreds of staff infected

And, Duke Health previously reported that their staff was nearly 100% vaccinated.

Is it Omicron or Delta?  One would expect this with Omicron.  

[chare]

7 minutes ago, subee said:

Is it Omicron or Delta?  One would expect this with Omicron.  

I agree.  One of the Duke ID physicians quoted in the article "suspects nearly all the recent cases stem from the omicron variant."

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

And now everyone comes back from the holidays. Should be interesting to see what the next few weeks bring.

[travelingrn2001, ASN, BSN]

Hospital admissions at my facility in Broward Florida are up. ICU admissions are up but partially due to medical admission complicated by Covid status. Incidental Covid findings not a primary diagnosis. Lots of co-workers are out even with 3 vaccine shots. 

[Wuzzie]

182 Covid hospitalizations (44 on the vent) does not make for an inundation of Covid patients in our 1300 bed hospital system despite what the local media is saying. Stupid people going to the ED with a positive test but no symptoms screaming (literally)for a monoclonal antibody treatment that is in short supply is what's causing our problem. That and a staff dropping like flies from Covid (not from mandates as some would tell you) which leads to closed beds which is why admitted patients are being boarded for days in the ED. Omicron is kicking our collective butts. 

Caveat: This is my area only. I am not in any way implying that it's the same all over before my two best friends jump all over me. YMMV

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

Thank you for the updates. 

 

 

[JBMmom, MSN, NP]

Our highest ever COVID positive number was 60 patients in January of last year. When I left this morning we had 55 COVID positive out of about 190 beds. But there are SO MANY sick people even without COVID. We've currently got four cadiac arrest patients in the ICU- one with an incidental finding of COVID. We've never had that many at one time. And we've had a few patients in the ICU over a month because unfortunately we've gotten really good at keeping dead people "alive" and the families can't pull the trigger and go CMO for some of these younger COVID patients.

We're also having more rapid responses called, which may be a result of higher patient to nurse ratios due to staffing shortages. The other day we had our first patients admitted as "hallway beds". A stretcher in the hall with no access to bathrooms (one was near only a staff bathroom), and no monitoring equipment or privacy. A nightmare for the patient and staff. 

[Wuzzie]

7 minutes ago, JBMmom said:

We're also having more rapid responses called, which may be a result of higher patient to nurse ratios due to staffing shortages.

Which they'll somehow manage to spin and blame the nurses.

[subee, MSN, CRNA]

2 hours ago, JBMmom said:

Our highest ever COVID positive number was 60 patients in January of last year. When I left this morning we had 55 COVID positive out of about 190 beds. But there are SO MANY sick people even without COVID. We've currently got four cadiac arrest patients in the ICU- one with an incidental finding of COVID. We've never had that many at one time. And we've had a few patients in the ICU over a month because unfortunately we've gotten really good at keeping dead people "alive" and the families can't pull the trigger and go CMO for some of these younger COVID patients.

We're also having more rapid responses called, which may be a result of higher patient to nurse ratios due to staffing shortages. The other day we had our first patients admitted as "hallway beds". A stretcher in the hall with no access to bathrooms (one was near only a staff bathroom), and no monitoring equipment or privacy. A nightmare for the patient and staff. 

100% of a vented patients are non-vaxxed.  There's 40 of them in town now on vents and we are a small city with a 442 bed hospital in town.

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

My friend in Seattle (my ag-59) got Pancreatitis in November and almost died. They aren't sure if it was caused by undiagnosed diabetes or caused diabetes. They also saw a pancreatic mass on CT. She has been rescheduled 3 times now for the biopsy. She is back home. Originally biopsy was scheduled for right after Christmas and now the end of January. Because the hospitals are full of course. Most of the primary dx Covid patients are non-vaxed as expected, but also 65% of patients in the hospital for other reasons are "incidentally" diagnosed with Covid.

My dad is in a SNF and they are shut down to all non-essential visitors with no end in site as staff and patients keep testing positive. Not sick at all, but just test positive or very mild symptoms,

Thank goodness my MIL's ALF here in Texas is not testing unless someone is sick with unknown etiology. Otherwise there would be no staff to care for them.