Some area ICUs are full and a field hospital may be needed for coronavirus patients
Dr. Alex Garza, the leader of the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force, on Friday painted a bleak outlook in the battle against coronavirus.
He said hospitals are running out of space with some ICUs full and that the task force may have to establish a field hospital as they treat a record surge of COVID-19 patients in this “worst time” for health care workers.
Frontline health care workers also spoke during the news conference to share their heart-wrenching stories about treating coronavirus patients.
Garza urged government leaders to enact a stay-at-home order as the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are quickly approaching and he urged everyone to follow virus safety guidelines.
“Wear your mask,” said Brittany Becker, a St. Luke’s Hospital emergency medicine nurse. “Trust me, it’s much better than being hooked up to a ventilator.”
Becker said she held the hands of a dying coronavirus patient who was not able to have family members visit and “prayed for them as they passed.”
Health care workers are “extremely busy” during this fall wave of patients, Becker said.
“We’re tired and stressed,” she said. “Our patients are scared, too.”
Garza said hospitals have seen a “sadly predictable” increase in the number of COVID-19 patients.
“So here’s the problem: While the hospitals are already almost full, the virus continues to spread like a wildfire,” Garza said. “That means if we continue on this current path, in another couple of weeks, hundreds more people will be sick and will need to be hospitalized and it will be difficult to find room for them.
“We also don’t know how we’re going to find room to take care of all of our other patients, such as those with heart attacks and other emergency needs.”
The task force was formed in April to coordinate the efforts of four health systems: BJC HealthCare, Mercy, SSM Health and St. Luke’s Hospital. The group’s statistics include results from BJC HealthCare’s metro-east hospitals: Alton Memorial Hospital, Memorial Hospital in Belleville and Memorial Hospital East in Shiloh.
Some task force hospitals have reached 100% capacity in the ICU departments while others are 90 full. The task force did not identify which hospitals are full.
Task force hospitals plan to put two patients into one ICU room and will convert other areas such as anesthesia rooms into ICU rooms to handle the expected crush of patients, Garza said.
Garza said the task force doesn’t know exactly what the peak will look like but if the number of patients continues to grow as it has, the hospitals will not be able to handle the flood of patients.
The task force was treating 680 coronavirus patients a week ago and by Friday that number reached 1,000.
Doctor calls for mask mandate
Garza said mask mandates are a necessary, effective tool in slowing the spread of the virus. Illinois has a statewide mask mandate but Missouri does not. He urged people to stop gathering in groups and to help the restaurant industry by ordering takeout during the pandemic.
“Mask wearing has never been about controlling the individual,” Garza said. “It has been about controlling the virus.
“Let me say a word for the people that still refuse to wear a mask. And my words are, ‘I get it.’ You don’t like the government to tell you what to do. No one likes being told what to do. I don’t like being told what to do.
“Unfortunately, the reality is by not wearing a mask with the virus raging across the state it makes you that much more likely to become infected or to infect somebody else,” he said. “You could unwittingly infect someone that you love who is at high risk, whether that’s your grandmother or your uncle who is on chemotherapy.”
In an effort to describe the desperate scenario health care workers face, Garza asked people to imagine an enemy massing at your border and you don’t have any reinforcements to call.
“That is a scary feeling,” he said.
COVID-related hospitalization statistics
The St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force released the following statistics Friday:
Staffed bed hospital capacity is at an average 84% across the task force hospitals.
The ICUs are at 91% of their total staffed bed capacity.
▪ New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) increased from 130 to 131 Friday.
▪ The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions (data lagged two days) remained the same at 126 Friday.
▪ The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations increased – from 783 Thursday to 807 Friday, a new seven-day moving average record.
▪ Inpatient confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations increased – from 849 Thursday to 881 Friday, a new daily hospitalization record.
▪ Inpatient suspected COVID positive hospitalizations decreased – from 150 Thursday to 148 Friday.
▪ The number of confirmed COVID positive patients in the ICUs increased – from 159 Thursday to 163 Friday.
▪ The number of confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators increased – from 87 Thursday to 88 Friday.
▪ Across the system hospitals, 131 COVID-19 patients were discharged Thursday, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 9,638.
This story was originally published November 20, 2020 at 1:43 PM.
