A big jump today in the number of COVID-19 patients being treated at The University of Kansas Health System. 36 patients are hospitalized, up from 29 yesterday. 14 patients are in the ICU, up from 9 yesterday. Eight patients are on ventilators, doubling from 4 yesterday. 41 other patients are still hospitalized because of COVID-19 but are out of the acute infection phase. That’s up from 37 yesterday. In addition, HaysMed has 20 total COVID-19 inpatients today, up from 17 yesterday, with 4 of those patients in the recovery phase. Doctors say bed availability is a rising concern and are nervous about capacity. They also worry the health system may not be able to accept as many transfer patients if the numbers keep rising.
On today’s Morning Media Update, we asked three experts from Respiratory Therapy to talk about the impact of COVID-19 on breathing. Kyle Fitzgerald, Assistant Director Respiratory Therapy, Belete Fikru, RT Team Leader, and Rick Couldry, PharmD and VP of Pharmacy Health Professions discussed how they help patients, the impact on supplies to treat patients, what time has taught us in fighting this pandemic, the impact on staff and how COVID-19 has led to even greater collaboration across Kansas.
Kyle Fitzgerald says it’s been a tough year on the 140 respiratory therapists in the health system with the challenges of treating so many COVID-19 patients. But he says they’ve met that challenge and were prepared in case the patient levels reached those of New York. He says despite the many aerosolizing procedures he and his department perform, there have been no staff infected by the virus. He discussed the training and certification needed to become a respiratory therapist and described what they do every day to help both COVID and non-COVID patients in the hospital.
Belete Fikru describes how the staff have had to use an ECMO machine on two patients in the last couple of months. ECMO is used for critically ill patients to replace the function of the heart and lungs. He’s grateful to see that in his long career in respiratory therapy, the equipment used to help patients breathe better has improved greatly, especially ventilators. He says at times it’s very challenging but they are gratified to be helping so many people, especially with a disease that so often affects breathing.
Rick Couldry says much has been learned about how to better treat COVID-19 patients since the beginning of the pandemic and he’s happy he’s been able to share those best practices with healthcare provides all across Kansas. He says keeping up with the demand for supplies has been a challenge, but one the health system has been able to handle.
Dana Hawkinson, MD, medical director of infection prevention and control at The University of Kansas Health System, wants to clarify the idea held by some that COVID-19 numbers are up only because we’re doing more testing. He says the testing amount doesn’t matter because the disease is still out there, and people will still get sick. He also discussed new CDC guidelines on cumulative exposure and said the basic concept is the more you’re in close spaces with others the more risk you have. Masks work, he says, when worn properly, covering both nose and mouth. He’s hopeful for a successful trial of the medicine that can be given orally to those newly diagnosed COVID-19 patents to help lessen their symptoms.
Steve Stites, MD, chief medical officer at The University of Kansas Health System, addressed the question of why we’ve seen a 30-40 percent increase in COVID-19 cases both here and around the country in the last few weeks. He pointed out the problem of people in bars and restaurants who feel that once inside, the masks come off and stay off. He reminded us they need to stay on except for when you’re actually eating your food. He says even with a vaccine, we don’t really know yet when we’ll be able to get back to normal. He believes it could be a year from now, but says life will get better incrementally, not all of a sudden. He says with the current rising numbers, we’re at a bump in the road. But he’s confident it’s not a question of are we going to handle it but how we’re going to handle it. He reminds us that no matter the season, the pillars of infection prevention follow us everywhere, and by following them we can beat COVID-19.
Tuesday, October 27 at 8:00 a.m. is the next morning media update. KU Chancellor Dr. Doug Girod and Chris Wilson, VP of System Integration and Innovation update COVID-19 spread on KU campus. They’ll show us what’s working and what’s not.
ATTENTION: media procedure for calling in:
The meeting is available by Zoom, both video and by phone. To join the Zoom Meeting by video, click https://kumc-ois.zoom.us/j/7828978628
Telephone dial-in Participants:
For those without Zoom, call 1-253-215-8782, meeting ID: 782 897 8628.
The feed is also available via TVU grid. The TVU source is UoK_Health and is being made available to all.
Feel free to send questions in advance to medicalnewsnetwork@kumc.edu.