Short-staffed Kansas City hospitals fear back-to-school increase in COVID cases
Fewer patients are being hospitalized and dying from COVID-19 around Kansas City than were during the winter omicron variant wave, but KC area health officials say they are concerned about local hospitals’ capacity to provide enough care going into the fall.
At a press briefing on Wednesday, officials from 10 area hospital systems said staffing shortages have led to a reduced bed capacity at hospitals and are delaying transfers from rural hospitals to better-equipped emergency departments in the metro.
Dr. Dana Hawksinson, the medical director of infection prevention and control at the University of Kansas Health System, added that fortunately, widespread immunity from vaccination and previous infection has prevented the current surge from reaching the case totals and hospitalization numbers of the delta or omicron variant waves.
Here’s what to know about the road ahead for the COVID-19 pandemic in Kansas City.
COVID-19 and the new school year
Area health officials are anticipating an uptick in infections as teachers and students return to the classroom.
Dr. Richard Watson, cofounder of an app called Motient that helps rural hospitals transfer patients, predicted that hospitals’ already limited bed capacity will be strained further when children return to school.
“The normal pattern of disease is, as kids go back to school, as activities change, as the weather changes, (these) dictate that we’re going to see a higher level of need across the system,” he said.
Hawkinson laid out some tips for teachers hoping to stay healthy as the school year begins.
Know your individual risk level for catching COVID-19– that includes things like your own underlying health conditions, recent infections and your vaccination status.
Make sure you’re up to date on booster shots, especially when new boosters become available soon.
Wear a mask and maintain distance in the classroom when possible.
Increase ventilation in classrooms by opening windows.
Kansas City Public Schools will require close contacts of any confirmed positive COVID-19 cases to wear a mask for 10 days following exposure. You can find the district’s overall COVID-19 protocols here.
New vaccines are on the way
Experts in Wednesday’s briefing shared that new “bivalent” COVID-19 vaccines, which have been in development for months, are likely to become available as soon as early September.
A “bivalent” vaccine is one that protects against two different antigens. That can mean two viruses or two strains of the same virus. In this case, new vaccines are designed to protect patients against the BA.4 and BA.5 strains of the omicron variant.
Doctor Steve Stites, the chief medical officer at The University of Kansas Health System and the moderator of Wednesday’s discussion, said that Pfizer’s new vaccine is anticipated in the coming weeks, while Moderna’s will likely arrive several weeks later in September.
He and other experts recommended that patients still in need of a booster shot get one of the new bivalent ones when they become available. As of last week, the CDC reported that the U.S. government has procured 175 million doses of these single-shot bivalent boosters.
Staffing shortages affect patient care
The health officials’ biggest concern was not having enough staff in hospitals, which they said is a trend across the health care industry. This precarious position causes fewer beds to be available to patients with all conditions, not just COVID-19.
“I think the big thing that we’ve all realized is that COVID unmasked a long and worsening problem in health care,” said Dr. Kevin Dishman, the chief medical officer at Stormont Vail Hospital in Topeka. “20% of people have left the profession– that’s doctors, that’s nurses, that’s ancillary staff, that’s administrative staff. Rebuilding is going to be difficult, and we cannot do it alone.”
Dishman called on local and national leaders to pay attention to the staffing crisis in health care, saying that the nation-wide challenge must have national solutions.
Dr. Stites added that while COVID-19 patient numbers are down in area hospitals compared to the previous pandemic wave, staff shortages put health care facilities in an even more vulnerable position than they were in last winter.
“Hospitals have not pulled out of the crisis,” he said. “It is not so much a COVID crisis as it is a health care crisis. And if we have any sort of a surge this winter, I think we will be in a very, very difficult position.”
Do you have more questions about access to health care in the Kansas City area? Ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com.
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