Oregon
Even Without COVID Surge, Oregon Hospitals Nearly Full
An absence of hospital mattress capability coupled with staffing shortages has well being care staff throughout Oregon on excessive alert.
On a Wednesday in late July, just one intensive care unit mattress was accessible amongst 4 counties, together with the majority of the Columbia River Gorge from Hood River to the agricultural city of Mayville in Gilliam County, almost two hours away. The four-county area has solely six ICU beds and 12 non-ICU hospital beds.
What’s taking place within the gorge is a statewide problem, well being officers say. As reported by Pamplin Media Group in 2020, Oregon has the fewest hospital beds per capita, in america. It is also dealing with a vital scarcity of well being care staff. That is left Oregon’s well being care system in a perpetual state of pressure for the reason that pandemic.
Oregon Well being & Science College’s hospital and clinics have been at or over capability almost each week since January.
However what’s alarming in regards to the July numbers that present Oregon hitting full capability mid-month, is that the state is not seeing a surge in COVID-19 instances.
Following a winter surge in January, the state has logged a reasonably regular enhance in sufferers hospitalized with COVID-19 since late April, which peaked July 17, when Oregon had 464 sufferers hospitalized and a few emergency departments within the Portland area had been at or over capability because of mixed demand.
As of July 27, these numbers subsided a bit, right down to 400 sufferers hospitalized with COVID, however hospitals have nonetheless been slammed.
In Area 1, which incorporates the Portland metro space, in addition to Clatsop and Tillamook counties, 92% of the area’s ICU beds had been full. In the identical space, 95% of non-ICU hospital beds had been occupied by sufferers for numerous medical wants. Benton, Lincoln, Polk, Yamhill, Linn, Marion, Coos, Curry, Douglas and Lane counties had been additionally 95% full.
“The capability state of affairs is as unhealthy because it was in the course of the delta and omicron surges, however we’re not in a surge in instances,” mentioned Dave Northfield, a communications director with the Oregon Affiliation of Hospitals and Well being Programs on Thursday, July 28.
Whereas a few of the hospitalizations are from sufferers with COVID-19, hospitals are also seeing an uptick in sufferers because of so many individuals delaying medical procedures or physician appointments in the course of the pandemic, a doctor with Oregon Well being & Science College mentioned. The hospitalizations are for a wide range of causes, however they’re coming at a time when the state would not sometimes see that large a requirement on capability.
Northfield mentioned Oregon hospitals often get busier round fall, when flu season hits. Northfield mentioned throughout the state, hospital administrators are reporting a delay in getting sufferers moved to the suitable care services. Some ambulance corporations are reporting as much as 90-minute wait occasions to get sufferers admitted, whereas others report having to journey lengthy distances to search out an open emergency room slot.
“We’re operating a full hospital daily for months,” Dr. Matthias Merkel, a vital care doctor with OHSU, mentioned Friday, July 29. “We’re basically utilizing each space we are able to and need to board sufferers in our emergency room who must be in an inpatient space. We are able to solely admit the following affected person when the earlier affected person has discharged.”
Merkel famous a relentless demand for care over the previous 12 months.
“The demand is simply rising. The kind of sufferers and what drives this demand, that’s the fascinating half. That’s altering in the course of the pandemic. I do not assume we have now an entire understanding intimately, of what drives that.”
Oddly, the excessive capability truly creates monetary points for hospitals. Oregon’s hospital affiliation reported the state’s hospitals misplaced a mixed $103 million in the course of the first quarter of 2022 because of rising labor prices, a surge in sufferers and lengthy discharge occasions that usually depart sufferers occupying ER beds for extra time than insurance coverage corporations will reimburse for.
Merkel mentioned that for the reason that begin of the pandemic, OHSU and hospitals across the state have collaborated and used superior analytical instruments to determine the way to meet sufferers’ wants and predict demand, however well being care staff are stretched skinny, working longer hours and extra days per week.
“The staffing scarcity has been continual and extreme,” mentioned Northfield, with the hospital affiliation. “This has been a problem for some time, however the pandemic has turbocharged the issue.”
Earlier this 12 months in spring, it wasn’t unusual for Oregon to file 350 to 450 accessible grownup non-ICU hospital beds every day, however the state has had fewer than 400 since Might 7. On July 27, there have been 291 hospital beds open throughout the state. In Area 6, the one that features Hood River, Wasco, Gilliam and Sherman counties, simply 4 hospital beds had been accessible.
The variety of accessible beds reported by the state will not be the variety of bodily beds in native hospitals, relatively, the assets accessible for affected person care. Even then, the state warns that some hospitals have staffing constraints that may additional restrict capability.
“Hospitals have continued to expertise strains on their capability, with greater than 85% of Oregon’s grownup ICU beds occupied since Might,” mentioned Rudy Owens with the Oregon Well being Authority. OHA differentiates between ICU and non-ICU beds accessible throughout all hospitals. Owens famous that there is been an even bigger scarcity of normal, non-ICU beds, saying the state well being company “proceed(s) to watch traits in hospitalization and mattress capability information.”
Courtney Vaughn is a reporter for The Portland Tribune and could be reached at [email protected]. This text is used with permission of the Pamplin Media Group. Learn extra from Oregon’s largest supply of unbiased native information at pamplinmedia.com.
For an athlete, a loss can shake even the strongest mental foundation. For Ohio State quarterback Will Howard, those feelings bubbled up after losing to the Oregon Ducks 32-31 at Autzen Stadium in early October.
While interviewing with ESPN before Ohio State’s semifinal game against the Texas Longhorns for the College Football Playoffs, the quarterback reflected on that feeling of loss.
“It’s been a rollercoaster. Some of the ups and downs that we did go through are why we’re sitting here today in the semifinals and probably playing our best ball right now,” Howard said. “There have been some tough moments. I’d say that Oregon loss early on in the season was rough.”
Howard, who went 28-35 passing for 326 yards and two touchdowns, remembers what he did after that fateful quarterback keeper turned slide that sealed the fate of the Buckeyes during that regular season encounter with the Ducks.
“Coming out of it I felt like I played a good game but it was really just the ending. I sat there and stewed over just how could I have done that differently. But when we got back here I think it was about six in the morning. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I was kind of at a loss. I went into the indoor and I just laid there for about an hour – hour and a half. I was in a dark place. I just wanted another crack at them so bad. I just couldn’t stop thinking about the next chance I could get,” Howard said.
It wasn’t too long before Howard got his second chance with Oregon. After winning the Big Ten Championship, the No. 1 ranked Ducks were seeded for the Rose Bowl. With the Buckeyes easily beating Tennessee at home the previous week, Ohio State faced the Ducks once more.
“Before every game, I listen to two voicemails that my late grandmother sent me and I’ve been doing that every game for the last three years now,” Howard said. “I listened to the voicemail and it just brought this immense peace over me. This year for the playoffs it actually probably got me going even more. It really helped.”
Those voicemails helped Howard correct his headspace before facing Oregon in the Rose Bowl. Howard went 17-26 in passing for 319 yards and three touchdowns. The Buckeyes completely shut out Oregon in the first quarter, with the Ducks only responding at the end of the second quarter with a touchdown and two point conversion. Howard reflected on the point in the game where the Buckeyes were up 34-0 against the No. 1 team in the nation.
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“Ecstatic. I mean, at that point it felt like it was almost not real. It was like ‘Man, are we really up on the No. 1 team in the country right now that we were in a dog fight with at their place?’” Howard said.
The Buckeyes won against Oregon 41-21, advancing to the Cotton Bowl Classic against the Texas Longhorns, where Howard and the Buckeyes are knocking on the door of a National Championship.
“You take a big National Championship ring and hoisting the trophy up. It takes a lot of the hardships and bad things that happened this year and kind of go out the window,” Howard said.
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Lewis & Clark College is opening up its residence halls early to students impacted by the wildfires in Los Angeles. Odell Annex pictured here, is a residence hall on the Lewis & Clark campus in Portland.
Adam Bacher courtesy of Lewis & Clark College
Some private universities in Oregon are offering extra assistance — from crisis counseling to emergency financial aid — to students who call Southern California home.
This comes amid the devastating wildfires currently burning in Los Angeles.
Lewis & Clark College, University of Portland and Reed College sent out messages of support to students with home addresses in Southern California this week.
Administrators at Lewis & Clark contacted around 250 undergraduate students in the region affected by the blazes. These students represent close to 12% of the college’s current undergraduate students.
The school, which begins its next term on Jan. 21, is opening up its dorms early for Southern California students at no extra cost.
“We will keep communicating with students in the weeks and months ahead to know how this impacts their next semester and beyond,” said Benjamin Meoz, Lewis & Clark’s senior associate dean of students. “That will mean a range of wraparound academic and counseling support.”
Lewis & Clark also pushed back its application deadline for prospective students from the Los Angeles area to Feb. 1.
Oregon crews arrive in Southern California to aid wildfire response
Reed College began reaching out to about 300 students who live in Southern California on Wednesday. In an email, the college urged students and faculty impacted by the fires to take advantage of the school’s mental health and financial aid resources.
Reed will also support students who need to return to campus earlier than expected. Classes at Reed do not begin until Jan. 27.
Students at University of Portland will be moving back in this weekend as its next term begins on Monday, Jan. 13. But UP did offer early move-in to students living in the Los Angeles area earlier this week. A spokesperson with UP said four students changed travel plans to arrive on campus early.
Students are already back on campus at the majority of Oregon’s other colleges and universities, with many schools beginning their terms earlier this week.
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Four Oregon lawmakers are calling on Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to help stop a plan that would kill 450,000 barred owls in an effort to save endangered spotted owls over the next 30 years.
The entrepreneurs were named by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
In a letter sent Tuesday, state Rep. Ed Diehl, R-Stayton, Rep. David Gomberg, D-Lincoln County, Rep. Virgle Osborne, R-Roseburg, and Sen.-elect Bruce Starr, R-Yamhill and Polk counties, asked the incoming Trump administration officials to stop the reportedly more than $1 billion project, calling it a “budget buster” and “impractical.”
Environmental groups Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy in late 2024 filed a federal lawsuit in Washington state to stop the planned killing of the barred owls.
Here is why the Oregon lawmakers are opposed to the plan, what the plan would do and why it is controversial.
Why the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to kill barred owls
In August 2024, after years of planning, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service came up with a proposal to kill a maximum of 450,000 invasive barred owls over 30 years as a way to quell habitat competition between them and the northern spotted owl.
Spotted owl populations have been rapidly declining due in part to competition from invasive barred owls, which originate in the eastern United States. Northern spotted owls are listed as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act.
According to the USFWS plan, barred owls are one of the main factors driving the rapid decline of northern and California spotted owls, and with their removal, less than one-half of 1% of the North American barred owl population would be killed.
The plan was formally approved by the Biden administration in September 2024.
Why environmental groups want to stop the plan to kill barred owls
Shortly after it was announced, Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy immediately responded in opposition to the plan to kill barred owls. They argued the plan was both ill-conceived and that habitat loss is the main factor driving the spotted owls decline.
“Spotted owls have experienced significant population decline over decades,” a news release from the groups filing the lawsuit said. “This decline began and continues due to habitat loss, particularly the timber harvest of old growth forest. The plan is not only ill-conceived and inhumane, but also destined to fail as a strategy to save the spotted owl.”
In their complaint, the groups argued the USFWS violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to properly analyze the impacts of their strategy and improperly rejecting reasonable alternatives to the mass killing of barred owls, such as nonlethal population control approaches, spotted owl rehabilitation efforts and better protections for owl habitat.
Why Oregon lawmakers are asking Musk to stop the plan to kill barred owls
The four Oregon lawmakers are siding with the environmental groups and calling for Musk and Ramaswamy to reverse the federal government’s plan to kill the barred owls. It was not immediately clear how the two could stop the plan.
The lawmakers letter stated the plan was impractical and a “budget buster,” with cost estimates for the plan around $1.35 billion, according to a press release by the two groups.
The letter speculates there likely isn’t an excess of people willing to do the killing for free: “it is expected that the individuals doing the shooting across millions of acres – including within Crater Lake National Park – will require compensation for the arduous, night-time hunts,” according to the press release.
“A billion-dollar price tag for this project should get the attention of everyone on the Trump team concerned about government efficiency,” Diehl said. “Killing one type of owl to save another is outrageous and doomed to fail. This plan will swallow up Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars for no good reason.”
USFWS says they aren’t trying to trade one bird for the other.
“As wildlife professionals, we approached this issue carefully and did not come to this decision lightly,” USFWS Oregon State Supervisor Kessina Lee said in announcing the decision in August. “Spotted owls are at a crossroads, and we need to manage both barred owls and habitat to save them. This isn’t about choosing one owl over the other. If we act now, future generations will be able to see both owls in our Western forests.”
Statesman Journal reporter Zach Urness contributed to this report.
Ginnie Sandoval is the Oregon Connect reporter for the Statesman Journal. Sandoval can be reached at GSandoval@gannett.com or on X at @GinnieSandoval.
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