The coronavirus omicron variant may be the lead strain nationwide, but the delta variant is the one causing a recent spike in new and active cases across the KVOE listening area.
At Newman Regional Health, Chief Executive Officer Bob Wright says current patient traffic is as bad as it has been throughout the pandemic. On KVOE’s Talk of Emporia program Friday. he called it the “most sustained volume” of any month since COVID came to the area in March 2020.
In its most recent COVID-19 Dashboard released Wednesday, the hospital had 11 COVID patients and has been above 10 patients per day since Dec. 17. Staff-based capacity has varied through the pandemic but typically has been under 20 and in many cases has been 15 or less since the pandemic began.
Newman Regional Health is also seeing more than double its budgeted daily COVID testing traffic in its ExpressCare unit. It’s now between 30-40 per day, above the projected number of around 15 a day.
The hospital isn’t seeing influenza at this time, but RSV and pneumonia are concerns as we close out the year.
One thing the hospital is seeing — along with others nationwide — is an increase in COVID traffic coupled with nearly pre-pandemic levels of traffic in other areas, notably elective procedures, at a time when staffing shortages are prevalent and were exacerbated by the recent federal vaccine mandate for hospital employees, even though that is currently on hold.
The hospital added contract staff in September to help meet the need.
Newman Regional Health went to its most restrictive visitation policy Dec. 8. The so-called Tier 3 policy eliminates visitors from the hospital except for a range of special circumstances, including:
* Childbirth
* Surgical outpatient procedures
* Critical care patients transferring to a tertiary facility
* Patients at time of discharge
* Appointments for pediatric patients under the age of 18
* Patients experiencing end-of-life
* Patients with acute or chronic cognitive impairment
Other aspects of the policy are online at www.newmanrh.org.
