The hospital system serving the southwest corner of Virginia and northeast Tennessee will suspend elective procedures beginning Monday.
The positivity rate in Ballad Health’s service area hit 20% Wednesday, about 15% in its Virginia counties. And it set a record for the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients Tuesday.
CEO Alan Levine fears that number may double by the end of the month. "The rapid increase we saw over the weekend with the number of cases, both those tested and in the hospital, those don’t even include the Thanksgiving numbers," Levine warned in a news conference. "So we’re obviously very concerned about the capacity issues. And we’ve got to be proactive."
Elective and non-emergent procedures will be paused for 30 days. The company says it will not furlough any additional employees. Instead, they’ll likely be shifted to bedside care duties. Ballad has ordered a second morgue truck for its Tennessee hospitals. National Guard troops are taking over some testing so that employees can work directly with patients.
Ballad facilities are operating at about 94% of their total capacity and there are only 13-14 ICU beds available in the entire system. Levine said it's wearing on hospital employees fighting to keep patients alive. "The emotional effect of this virus on front line health care workers, on nurses, I think is going to be felt for a long time, even after we get past this virus," Levine said. "When you see the consequences on the staff, on the team members who did sacrifice their Thanksgiving, are sacrificing time with their own families to care for your family, I think it's worth that alone to show them support."
Ballad Incident Commander Eric Deaton said the spread of the virus in the community is not under control and the impact on the hospital system is not sutainable. "We need everyone to step up and help us," Deaton said. "I am pleading with you, please change your behavior if you haven’t yet."
Hospitalizations Rise in Near Southwest Region of Virginia
Hospitals in the Virginia Department of Health's Near Southwest Region, which includes Roanoke, Lynchburg, Danville, Martinsville and parts of New River Valley, reported a significant increase in hospitalized COVID-19 patients Wednesday.
- Hospitalized COVID-19 patients: 280 (was 234 last week)
- Patients in ICU: 61 (was 49 last week)
- Patients on a ventilator: 30 (was 24 last week)
Hospitals in the New River Valley are feeling the pinch of caring for more COVID-19 patients. But the director of the New River Health District says people in need of care should not be worried about going to a hospital. "Hospitals have put excellent protocols in place. They have the PPE. They have addressed safely being able to care for people with COVID and without COVID." Dr. Noelle Bissell said that the community can help maintain hospital capacity by not contracting and spreading COVID-19.
Bissell said Wednesday morning that overall COVID-19 cases in the New River Health District have been trending down over the last couple of weeks. But she said the impact of Thanksgiving gatherings and travel won’t be felt for another week or ten days.
COVID-Related Metrics Also on the Rise for Centra Health
Officials with Centra Health – which operates hospitals in the Lynchburg area and southside – say COVID metrics within its system continue to rise.
During an update Wednesday, Dr. Chris Lewis says there are currently 45 hospitalizations. But he said Centra saw even more hospitalizations this past weekend – breaking its previous record set earlier this year.
That led to the need for more beds at Lynchburg General Hospital – where most COVID patients in the system are funneled to.
“We needed to open up a full second floor which is our oncology floor to COVID as well," Lewis said. "We moved all of our oncology patients off of that floor and dedicated another 35 beds to COVID.”
Lewis added that despite that, the system is currently managing the influx of patients. He also said Centra isn’t close to needing to restrict elective surgeries at this time.
The system is also preparing to distribute a potential vaccine once one is approved and made available.
Andy Mueller with Centra says the health system will likely be one of 16 across the state that can distribute a vaccine.
“We don’t know exactly when we expect to get our first vaccine arriving on site," he explained. "We’re hopeful that it could be as early as next week once it receives emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration.”
During that same update Wednesday, Mueller added that front line healthcare workers will likely be prioritized with the first batch of vaccine whenever it arrives.
He also said Centra won’t require its caregivers to get a vaccine but it will be strongly encouraged.
