After daily COVID census numbers in the double digits for most of mid-December, numbers came down shortly after Christmas at Newman Regional Health.
The hospital’s weekly COVID-19 Dashboard shows daily census numbers between six and nine between Dec. 29 and Wednesday, with eight COVID patients at the hospital on Wednesday. COVID census numbers had been as high as 13 per day between Christmas and Dec. 27.
Meanwhile, the number of vaccinated COVID patients needing hospital stays is nearly level with the last two weeks. Of the 103 hospitalized patients since July 1, 84 were unvaccinated and 19 were vaccinated — meaning the percentage of vaccinated patients at the hospital was 18.4 percent, on par with the nearly 20 percent last week and the 18 percent from the prior week.
The median patient transfer time jumped from three and a half hours to over five hours, but the longest wait time came down from over nine days last week to nearly two days.
Local COVID numbers have been spiking since Thanksgiving, and Newman Regional Health CEO Bob Wright says both hospital staff and contract labor have had a lot of work throughout the pandemic, but especially before and during the holiday period. He says there has been a lot of overtime and additional shifts recently.
Wright says nurses especially have left in greater numbers than normal turnover, including better opportunities elsewhere — including contract companies — and COVID-19 burnout. Wright says the turnover has forced the hospital to rely more on contract staff, but he’s hoping things return to normal later this year.
Many of the current patients would normally be transferred to other hospitals, but medical facilities are either full or close to full across the state — like what happened periodically last year.
Wright says the current spike may last through much of February. The hospital will bring in new hires from graduating university classes, but they may need up to six months of training — meaning an ongoing need for more contract staff, possibly through summer.
