As the number of COVID-19 cases quickly grows in Oregon and throughout the country, government leaders and public health authorities have focused their attention on the readiness of hospitals to deal with an influx of coronavirus patients.
With 43 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Marion County (as of March 25), Our Town contacted Santiam Hospital to find out how prepared these facilities are for the ongoing pandemic.
The short answer seems to be it depends on the number of cases. As of March 25, in Oregon 75 people had been hospitalized out of the 266 confirmed cases of COVID-19, a rate of approximately 28%. If the number of cases grows exponentially and the hospitalization rate stays around 28% this will be a huge challenge. However, if the social distancing and stay home measures work, the number of cases could stay relatively low and local hospital administrators are confident they can handle a small surge of patients.
“Any American acute care hospital can take care of a COVID-19 patient, (but) it becomes a problem when you are caring for 30 of them,” said Dr. Steve Vets, Emergency Room Director for Santiam Hospital. “We will never be fully prepared for a disaster of this scale, but we are blessed to have a little period of warning to prepare.”
Dr. Vets said that while he was confident that Santiam Hospital can manage a patient in respiratory failure, a major coronavirus patient influx would exceed the hospital’s resources.
“These patients are very resource intensive and one or two on a normal day is OK, (while) three or four is taxing to our hospital. If you are treating 10+ patients in respiratory failure, we will have a very, very challenging situation. Further, if a patient then progresses to multi-organ failure, it will exceed our capabilities.
“It is likely we will have no place to transfer them. The prognosis in that situation is poor to begin with (and) in a mass event those people will die… My most limiting factor is staff. Any staff illness will have impact. I am concerned about my staff’s safety and how fatigue will affect them.”
Dr. Vets said Santiam Hospital personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies are “better then some, but not great.” Santiam Hospital, like other facilities, has postponed elective surgeries. This will help alleviate a possible future PPE shortage.
“The scale of this (coronavirus) is the real problem,” Dr. Vets stressed. “The virus is bad, but there are worse. History is full of worse pandemics… But this is a scale (of a pandemic) that the world has not seen in 100 years… I am deeply concerned.”
But he also sees hope in this crisis and wants people to realize how they can help avoid the worst outcome.
“We are not helpless to this pandemic,” Dr. Vets noted. “Frankly, the public at large will affect the pandemic more though social distancing and hygiene than any hospital. Our collective action will change the course of this pandemic. Social distance, wash your hands, and, if you get sick, self quarantine.”
