COVID-19 has been straining hospital capacity since the delta variant came to the forefront earlier this summer, and that’s happening at Newman Regional Health.
The hospital’s Board of Trustees discussed the current situation and a potentially wider range of related public information at its meeting Wednesday. Chief Executive Officer Bob Wright says the emergency room is holding steady at between three and five patients per day. That’s in large part because no hospital in the area has room.
Patients needing emergency care are being transferred to hospitals in Nebraska and Oklahoma on occasion. Non-COVID patients needing emergency care at other hospitals are now waiting up to nine hours for transfers elsewhere.
Wright says the COVID situation is impacting patients who need care for other reasons than coronavirus.
Through June, inpatient times from admission to bed time is three hours and 45 minutes, but that’s 50 minutes less than the national average. The corresponding outpatient time is 80 minutes, down from the national average of 99. Both sets are lower than 2020, when it took over four hours for inpatient processing and over 90 minutes for outpatients. July and August stats — reflecting COVID-19 impact — are pending. Wright says the hospital has added emergency room provider hours over the past year.
Wright also says the COVID impact is noted at ExpressCare, where testing is up three times from early this month.
Two weeks ago, Newman Regional Health closed its outpatient Clinical Decision Unit next to the emergency room and moved the outpatient observation unit to the third floor, a move that Wright says has made COVID operations more efficient. Wright says the hospital is like many others nationwide that have staff vacancies in many areas, so Newman Regional Health is filling those through contract labor, overtime and managers working extra time.
Wright, medical staff and board members discussed options for releasing more information to the public about the hospital’s current situation. One option was a return of weekly discussions with Lyon County commissioners, now happening on a monthly basis. Another was a regular release to local media — with some potential data sets including the number of patients versus the number of available beds and patient wait times for emergency treatment.
