Salem health is full, paralyzed health care workers and hospitals will soon take action to treat the body as the coronavirus pandemic continues to overwhelm health systems, Salem Health CEO Cheryl Nester Wolfe said Thursday.
“The reality is that we lost this war,” Wolfe said.
In a conversation with members of the Salem Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, Wolfe said the hospital was “fully filled” and was currently treating 93 patients with COVID-19. They are canceling surgeries because they do not have bed capacity and there are currently 30 patients in the emergency department without beds.
In hospitals where health care workers are used to treat people and save lives, there is often little hospitalization can be done when serious cases of delta differentiation are received.
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The intensive care unit — a 30-bed unit — has 21 COVID-19 patients, 16 of whom are on air conditioners.
“Those 16 will not,” Wolfe said. “That’s really what we’re dealing with.”
Wolfe said health care workers are also struggling with the unrealistic expectations of patient families.
“By the time someone was in our ICU, they had installed an elevator, it was finished at that point,” he said.
Wolfe cites an example in which health professionals performed a C-section on a pregnant woman with COVID-19. Wolfe said the mother would not understand the protein.
The hospital is also seeing an increase in the pediatric cases of COVID-19, at least two of which are significant enough that patients are referred to specialized hospitals for treatment beyond Salem Health capacity, Wolfe said.
In addition, people who have been waiting for treatment for non-coronavirus infections for months and are turning to the hospital are very sick and need treatment.
“We did not shout. We did not register for a pandemic, and we did not register for the entire lost day and people could not be saved, ”Wolfe said. “We miss a lot.”
Wolfe said the community did not fully understand what was happening with the hospital scan. However, Salem Health has been slow to allow media access to the hospital or provide staff who want to speak openly with reporters, despite numerous requests.
During a rare media visit to the Salem ICU Hospital on August 20, staff told reporters that while the ICU was full, the hospital was able to continue to treat everyone in need of treatment.
Wolfe said the hospital has hired an additional 150 nursing staff to assist with surgery, and 160 members of the Oregon National Guard will arrive at the hospital next week to help with non-surgical activities. medical.
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According to statistical analysis, the peak of the current increase in cases is expected in the coming weeks, Wolfe said. For the past two weeks, the hospital has visited about 90 COVID-19 patients per day.
Wolfe also encouraged business owners to plan a series of immunizations for their employees because vaccines have been shown to be effective against both transmission and serious illness and death.
He said he supported the recent governor’s immunization drive for health care professionals, saying it was important that all staff were available to work.
About 25% of hospital staff are unvaccinated, Wofle said. He expects some staff to leave because of the order.
Reporter Connor Radnovich covers the Oregon Legislature and the state government. Contact him at cradnovich@statesmanjournal.com or 503-399-6864, or follow him on Twitter at @CDRadnovich.
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