Springfield hospitals see ‘very encouraging’ drop in COVID cases, but deaths continue

While hospitalizations among those infected by the coronavirus are down in Springfield-area hospitals, southwest Missouri isn’t out of the woods yet.

Erik Frederick, Mercy Springfield’s chief administrative officer, said Tuesday that Mercy Hospital Springfield was caring for 89 infectious COVID-19 patients. This is in addition to 29 COVID-19 patients who were no longer infectious, and 20 other infectious patients across Mercy’s regional hospitals, a hospital spokeswoman said.

On Monday, Mercy was caring for 106 infectious patients and 22 non-infections patients, Frederick said; 97% were not vaccinated.

“Big drop over the last 72 hours,” Frederick tweeted Tuesday. “Very encouraging and a needed respite for all of our coworkers.”

On Monday, CoxHealth was treating 172 patients with coronavirus, CEO Steve Edwards said of the Springfield hospital system. On Tuesday, the number was down slightly, at 162, Edwards said in a tweet Tuesday.

Edwards on Tuesday noted that not all of the COVID-19 patients are being cared for at the hospital.

In July of 2020, CoxHealth at Home — which provides home care services in southwest Missouri — had about 170 patients on home oxygen, Edward said. This July, it was more than 700.

Six more people died between Monday and Tuesday, Edwards said, bringing August’s total to 32. To date, CoxHealth has reported 600 COVID-19 deaths.

“ERs in Springfield very slow as hospitals are dealing with high admissions and no where to transfer,” he tweeted Monday. “This is adversely effecting Covid and and noncovid patients.”

In the past week, 633 more people tested positive for COVID-19 in Greene County, according to state data. This is down a couple hundred from the weeks prior.

In July, more than half of the patients admitted to the intensive care unit at Mercy Springfield Communities hospital system died, Frederick said last week.

Edwards said symptomatic positivity continued “inching down,” landing on 20% as of Tuesday.

“We welcome the lower census but the virus has not gone away,” Frederick wrote on Twitter. “Get vaccinated. Mask up.”

More children hospitalized

From June to July, the rate of new infections in children under the age of 12 more than doubled, Katie Towns, director of health for Springfield-Greene County, said last week.

Diane Lipscomb, medical director for inpatient pediatrics and the pediatric intensive care unit at Mercy Springfield, said Wednesday that since June 1, and the onset of the delta variant surge, her hospital has seen an increase in pediatric patients who have been critically ill with the virus.

“In prior surges, we had very few children, if at all any admitted,” Lipscomb said. “During this surge, we are now seeing children admitted at the rates of zero to five per day.”

Karen Kramer, chief hospital officer and incident commander from CoxHealth in Springfield, said last week that the hospital in April and May saw four pediatric patients admitted with the virus.

In June and July, the total number of hospitalized children rose to 28, Kramer said.

Lipscomb said Wednesday that while no children have died, those admitted to the ICU stay for an average of seven to 10 days, and those admitted to the pediatric floor stay an average of two to five days.

“Many of these children are admitted to the ICU, and many of these children are our teenagers that are coming in requiring critical care,” she said.

This story was originally published August 10, 2021 at 12:19 PM.