HITTING HOME | St. E’s has fewer open beds; a Valley nurse pleads for help
CEDARVILLE — An emergency room nurse at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital issued a "plea for help" on a day Ohio reported its sixth-highest single-day total of new coronavirus cases and 336 new COVID-19 hospitalizations.
The hospital in the first four days of this month had an average 26 medical or surgical beds available on any given day, down from 53 for the month of November, according to state hospital capacity data provided to Eye on Ohio.
The Youngstown hospital and trauma center, however, has only reported having a single ICU bed available, on Dec. 1, and zero as of its most recent report on Dec. 4. It averaged nine available ICU beds throughout November, as hospital capacity shrank statewide to a universal low on Nov. 20 — three weeks following Halloween.
St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital emergency department nurse and team lead Lisa Burich said her department is "in the thick of it," and is struggling to manage capacity amid the recent spike in new COVID-19 cases.
"Now we're dealing with all our regular patients and all the COVID patients on top of that," she said during a Monday briefing on the state's coronavirus response. "We're holding critically ill patients in the ER for sometimes days at a time.
"We're really bogged down."
What will it take to flatten the curve?
See the hospital's available medical/surgical and ICU beds below:
You can see more hospital data visualizations, including available PPE and isolation beds at each Ohio hospital on Eye on Ohio's website.
The process of staging patients in the ER is called "boarding." Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, Ohio Department of Health's chief medical officer, said the process isn't uncommon when hospitals are busy, but the difference now is that hospitals are currently seeing consistently high censuses.
He expects it to further weaken hospital services throughout the state — which he likened to "rolling electrical outages" — and a prioritization of care simply to avoid death.
Even if the number of new cases were to reach a plateau, Gov. Mike DeWine said it's "not sustainable for a length of time, or it's going to have some dire consequences."
Burich said she's seen some come to the Youngstown ER with mild symptoms of COVID-19, while others struggle to breathe and have to be intubated immediately, she said. The hospital reported having 26 available ventilators on Nov. 20, now down to 12.
St. Elizabeth Boardman Hospital, however, reported having only one ventilator on Nov. 20 and 20 on Dec. 4.
Local health officials from around the state told DeWine in a Monday call they're concerned Ohioans may be waiting too long to call 911 for breathing problems related to COVID-19, the governor reported.
Burich said anyone experiencing "significant shortness of breath" should call 911 immediately, though she noted the several Mercy flu clinics established in the area can help those with milder symptoms. As she and her ER coworkers remain overtaxed, she urged Ohioans to "utilize the appropriate level of care right now."
Burich said the unrelenting nature of the pandemic has injured local morale. Caregivers are most concerned with bringing the virus back to their families, she said.
"We're exhausted physically and mentally. We're definitely leaning on each other for strength at this time," she said.
"This is our plea for help. We need everybody to do their part," she said, stressing the importance of wearing masks and maintaining social distancing. "It's not only you protect yourself and your family, but it's to keep us health care workers healthy."
Other news
• According to the latest figures Monday from the Ohio Department of Health, the state is reporting 484,297 confirmed or suspected cases of the coronavirus. There have been 9,854 confirmed or suspected cases in Mahoning County; 7,365 in Trumbull County; and 4,480 in Columbiana County.
• Statewide, there have been 7,022 confirmed or suspected COVID-19 deaths, including 307 in Mahoning County; 165 in Trumbull; and 104 in Columbiana. Mahoning County's 307 reported COVID-19 deaths on Monnday was sixth among Ohio's 88 counties; Cuyahoga County had the most with 786.
• In nearby counties: Stark, 13,035 cases and 239 deaths; Portage, 4,890 cases and 80 deaths; and Ashtabula, 2,903 cases and 58 deaths.
• Youngstown State University reported 28 new coronavirus cases on Monday. Of the new cases, 19 were reported by students who live off-campus, six cases were reported by students living on-campus and three cases were reported by employees. The university has reported 277 cases since Aug. 1.
• Mahoning County commissioners last month approved CARES Act distributions to purchase four hand-washing stations for Youngstown City School District schools. The touchless Personal Protected Quad-Sink stations were produced by Personal Protected in New Middletown.
• Gov. Mike DeWine on Monday said the state will stop double-checking coronavirus test results from "rapid" antigen tests and will instead simply add them to the state's case total. Though several other states and the CDC no longer require or encourage verification of those tests — which are less accurate than the more common, lab-based PCR tests — the Ohio Department of Health has manually verified them for months. Now, the department seeks to clear its backlog of more than 12,000 antigen test results, the daily volume of which has doubled in the past four weeks. As a result, today's report of daily coronavirus cases is expected to appear inflated, DeWine said. The department will continue to double-check and remove duplicate records, he said.
• Gov. Mike DeWine on Thursday is expected to extend the state's 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew, which took effect Nov. 19 and is set to expire Thursday. He declined to offer more details to reporters Monday. The curfew was intended to curb the spread of new coronavirus cases by limit Ohioans' contacts with others. Curfew exemptions include essential work, healthcare needs, emergencies, grocery shopping and take-out.
• According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health on Monday, there were 426,444 COVID-19 cases in the state which have led to 11,373 deaths. The state said the recovery rate is 58 percent. There have been 3,693 confirmed or suspected cases in Mercer County and 58 deaths; 2,703 cases in Lawrence County and 79 deaths.
This story was originally published December 8, 2020 at 3:52 AM with the headline "HITTING HOME | St. E’s has fewer open beds; a Valley nurse pleads for help."