‘A critical juncture’: KC area hospitals consider options as COVID-19 cases surge
Kansas City area hospitals are inching closer to crisis as the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases spirals out of control.
Health officials said they are nearing the point where transfers from rural hospitals will be denied and inpatient surgeries will need to be scaled back in order to address capacity concerns.
On Tuesday, the Kansas City metro area added 1,284 cases, the highest number of new daily cases reported since the pandemic began in March.
The University of Kansas Health System, the same day, reported 72 patients hospitalized for the virus, a number that has steadily increased over recent weeks. The number of hospitalizations Tuesday broke Monday’s record of 68.
Steve Stites, chief medical officer at the health system, said they have had to slow down the number of transfers they accept from other hospitals.
“That’s not the best answer, right, because that hurts patients who need you,” he said during a briefing hosted by the health system.
As Kansas City area hospitals fight against buckling under the spike in metro cases, rural hospitals dealing with their own surge, have looked to larger hospitals for support.
The KU health system has been forced to start using “alternate care locations,” meaning patients are kept in areas like a dialysis unit that they would not typically be in.
Stites said the health system is now facing the tough decision of also “actively” looking at reducing non-emergency surgeries.
“We haven’t started it yet but it is under strong consideration,” Stites said.
The last thing they can do is stress the importance of infection control, he said.
“Right here in the hospital, in the wards where our COVID patients are, we have a lot of staff and those staff aren’t getting sick in those COVID wards,” Stites said. “And why don’t they get sick? It’s because they follow the rules of infection control — they wear a mask, they wash their hands, they do the things they’re supposed to do. Those rules keep you safe. All those people out there that are mask deniers, I don’t know why you want to do that. We just have to get over the thought that this is a political thing. It’s just not political, it’s health.”
Steven Hoeger, who co-chairs the Mid-America Regional Council’s hospital committee and is the director of safety and emergency management at Truman Medical Center, said they are also considering delaying surgeries as “a final relief valve.”
Hospitals in the metro resorted to that option during the spring, however, it caused a backlog in care and presented financial strains as they were kept from performing procedures that help keep them afloat.
Most of Truman’s COVID-19 areas are either full or close to it.
“Over the last couple of days, we’ve been seeing nearly record high numbers,” Hoeger said.
Johnson County reported a record 404 new cases on Tuesday.
“Hospital officials are telling us the metro area is at a critical juncture between concern and crisis,” the department posted on social media. “Unfortunately, that needle is trending more and more towards crisis, every day.”
Ninety percent of the adult ICU beds were filled in the Kansas City region, according to the Kansas Hospital Association.
“Statewide, we continue to see increases in community spread and increases in capacity,” spokeswoman Cindy Samuelson said.
Smaller hospitals are already having a more difficult time transferring patients to a larger facility.
“You would normally make a few phone calls, find them a bed to transfer them in your service area,” Samuelson said. “Well right now, it’s taking a lot longer for that hospital to find them an open bed for that patient. Maybe it’s COVID, maybe it’s some other health issue. And then in many cases they are for sure having to go further away than normal to find that available bed and sometimes that’s even been out of state.”
Officials have stressed that bed availability is contingent on having staff. But health care workers in many facilities have contracted the virus or been exposed, forcing them to quarantine. Some have children who are now learning remotely and have quit to care for them. Others are burned out, exhausted from months of caring for critically ill patients.
Some hospitals are facing such an uphill battle that staff in managerial positions have been asked to work in a clinical setting, and in some instances retired health care workers are being asked to return.
Dave Dillon, a spokesman for the Missouri Hospital Association, said the number of staffed beds, especially in intensive care units, is growing tight. Some hospitals are using agency staff and others have reduced scheduled, non-emergent care.
“The best indicator of future hospital demand is the infection rate,” Dillon said. “And, those rates are going up in all parts of the state.”
However, health officials said anyone needing immediate attention should still seek care.
This story was originally published November 11, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
