Ballad Health expects to exceed its previous peak for hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the next few days.
The hospital system that serves the southwest corner of Virginia and northeast Tennessee reported 331 patients Wednesday. During last winter’s surge, that number peaked at 361. Chief Operating Officer Eric Deaton expects that total to hit 400 patients next week. "We’re okay today," Deaton said during a weekly news conference. "Our team is very stressed, they’re overworked, they’re getting burned out. We really need mitigation from our community."
Ballad has already suspended non-emergency surgeries. Deaton said some of those procedures have been picked up by other outpatient surgery centers. The health care provider has also requested additional assistance from the Tennessee National Guard.
Ballad is also increasing its capacity to administer monoclonal antibody treatments. Deaton said those have been helpful in keeping some COVID-19 patients out of the hospital.
The continued increase in cases is being driven by low vaccination rates and high testing positivity rates, particularly in some of Tennessee counties in Ballad's service area. Just under 40% of the area's adult population is fully vaccinated, according to Deaton. But some Tennessee counties are much lower. The testing positivity rate for Ballad's total service area was 20% Wednesday, higher than both Tennessee's statewide rate of 18% and Virginia's statewide rate of 10%. The positivity rate in some of Ballad's Tennessee counties is as high as 29% though.
The vast majority of hospitalized patients are unvaccinated, according to Ballad officials. Of the 77 patients in the Intensive Care Unit, only three are vaccinated. And of the 48 patients on ventilators, only one is vaccinated.
