Hawaii hospitals at full capacity even with drop in COVID patients

The common variety of sufferers with COVID-19 dropped to a brand new low over the previous week, however hospitals in Hawaii are nonetheless bursting on the seams.

The regular rise within the affected person counts over the course of the pandemic has continued, in keeping with Hilton Raethel, president and CEO of the Healthcare Affiliation of Hawaii, which advocates for a number of well being care amenities and suppliers, together with 28 hospital members.

On Wednesday, there have been 2,526 sufferers in Hawaii hospitals, which is taken into account very full, translating into longer wait instances at emergency rooms and demand for extra well being care staff nonetheless in brief provide.

The common hospital census for this 12 months up to now is 2,481, which is increased than in earlier years. In 2019 and 2020, the common was about 2,000 sufferers, roughly 2,200 in 2021 and roughly 2,350 in 2022.

“Our census truly continues to creep up,” he stated. “So it’s not taking place, although the COVID numbers are taking place. It’s very undoubtedly the brand new regular. Sadly, what meaning is that we now have extra sufferers who’re sicker than we had three to 4 years in the past, and that’s the truth of what we’re coping with.”

On Wednesday, hospitalizations of COVID-19 sufferers declined to a weekly statewide common of 47 per day, the primary dip beneath 50 since April.

The weekly common of COVID-19 sufferers in intensive care dropped to simply two per day, and on two days over the previous week, there have been truly none in intensive care.

That’s the excellent news, however the unhealthy information is that the drop in COVID-19 sufferers has not resulted in a corresponding drop within the total statewide hospital census because the begin of the pandemic in early 2020. Actually, it’s been the alternative.

The will increase have been obscured by the pandemic, in keeping with Raethel. The belief was that the hospital census would decline because the variety of COVID-19 sufferers fell. As a substitute, COVID-19 sufferers have been changed by sufferers affected by different illnesses.

He believes the upper variety of sufferers might be resulting from a mix of things, together with deferred care, an getting older inhabitants and the continued problem of accommodating waitlisted sufferers — sufferers who’re able to be transferred to a long-term care facility however can’t resulting from lack of availability.

Many long-term care amenities, akin to nursing properties, are nonetheless experiencing staffing shortages and are unable to confess new sufferers. So these sufferers — a median of 250 to 300 on any given day — find yourself ready in hospital beds.

The Healthcare Affiliation of Hawaii is working with the state Division of Well being and Metropolis and County of Honolulu to acquire $7 million in funding to deliver touring nurses to long-term care amenities to offer non permanent aid. The aim is to open up 100 beds to ease the variety of waitlisted sufferers in hospitals, hopefully by early to mid-March, Raethel stated.

In the course of the delta and omicron COVID-19 surges, Federal Emergency Administration Company funds helped deliver touring nurses to hospitals however to not long-term care amenities.

“We tried very exhausting, however we weren’t in a position to get funding on the time for our long-term care amenities,” Raethel stated. “We weren’t in a position to make the logistics work.”

Staffing shortages persist, and hospitals themselves are at the moment footing the invoice for about 600 touring well being care staff.

But in addition, the pandemic has had repercussions on the final well being of the neighborhood, whether or not it’s delayed care, exacerbation of different situations by a COVID-19 an infection, or lengthy COVID.

“There’s extra proof coming on the market’s direct consequence,” Raethel stated. “Individuals are nonetheless attempting to determine how a lot of those worsening well being outcomes is straight associated to COVID.”

Research have proven a COVID-19 an infection is linked to coronary heart issues and may improve the danger of coronary heart assault or stroke. Different research are inspecting the prevalence of organ harm in these affected by post-infection situations.

DOH on Wednesday posted a discover on its dashboard saying it was unable to offer weekly COVID-19 case counts or different metrics resulting from an ongoing improve of its illness surveillance system infrastructure. The information will likely be supplied subsequent week when the updates resume, the company stated.

The every day common of recent instances had been on a downward development and declined to 89 per day on Feb. 15 whereas the common positivity charge remained regular at 4.7%.