Hospitalizations might be cresting, but deaths are on the rise in WA COVID-19 surge
Hospitalizations associated with the Delta variant are declining in some parts of Washington state, but deaths are increasing and border communities continue to struggle with COVID-19 cases.
That was the update Monday from the Washington State Hospital Association, which has been hosting weekly media briefings with health officials from across the state to offer updates on the COVID case surge.
There are currently 1,504 COVID-19 hospitalizations throughout the state, compared with 1,673 last week, with about 260 patients on ventilators.
“One of the reasons the hospitalization rates are falling is the death rates are rising,” said association CEO Cassie Sauer. “And so when you’ve got fewer people in the hospital, it is because some have died.“
She added that there are “a number of counties that are either ordering additional morgue capacity through refrigerated trucks or are working with their morgues to figure out how to increase capacity.”
Ten COVID patients died within one 24-hour cycle at Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, Thurston County health officials said last week. It was Providence’s largest single-day death toll since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hospitals at state borders in dire straits
Some of the most dramatic details offered Monday came from Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center president Jon Hersen of Vancouver, Washington, and Dr. Dan Getz, chief medical officer with Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane.
Both said they were seeing a high number of cases.
Hersen told reporters, “The impact of this particular variant has been and continues to be dire.”
“Over the last 30 days. Aug. 15 through Sept. 15, we have averaged 63 COVID positive patients in house per day. Just to give you an order of magnitude, during some of the other surges we ranged in the high 20s to low 30s,” Hersen said.
Average age of patients at the hospital was 57, he said.
“We are certainly at capacity, and it is essentially clogging up the entire system. Basically we are housing patients in the emergency room that normally would be admitted for inpatient status, and that then leads downstream to extremely long waits for emergency room care,” he said.
Hersen also noted there has been violence aimed at health care workers and some workers are suffering “extreme burnout and fatigue.”
“Many are choosing to leave the profession, and obviously the mandate will cause others to potentially leave as well,” he said. “In addition to that, we deal with a lot of verbal and sometimes physical abuse from our community — continued resistance to masking and visitor guidelines.
“Our screeners who are the front door to our community, are subject to daily verbal, and sometimes physical abuse and unnecessary stressful situation.”
Getz said delays in other care have been “heart-wrenching” as his Eastern Washington hospital dealt with transfers from Idaho, a state which has moved to crisis standards of care.
“We still feel like we’re in crisis, and we’ve done lots of things to try and expand capacity within the hospital — very difficult decisions, including pausing nonemergency surgeries,” including cancer surgeries, Getz noted.
“We’re saying, ‘Well, maybe in two weeks we can do that surgery because right now we have to increase our capacity in our ICU for these patients with COVID.’ We continue to help our neighbors to the east in Idaho ... but it’s challenging. We really do need the help with the community to get vaccinated, wear masks,” Getz said.
“Remember, if you’re a patient who has been recently diagnosed with cancer, we have a way to cure that, remove that from your body surgically, and we call you and say it’s gonna be two weeks ... maybe three or four weeks. That interim, you’re agonizing. That’s a diagnosis that redefines who you are. It’s kind of all you think about until you get to treat it.”
A request for federal assistance with health care staffing is still to be determined, Sauer told reporters Monday.
In a letter dated Sept. 17, Gov. Jay Inslee requested federal aid from Jeff Zients, federal COVID-19 response coordinator, seeking clinical and non-clinical staff, to support the state’s health care networks.
“To date, the Washington State Department of Health has requested 1,200 clinical and non-clinical staff through the General Services Administration contracting process offered through FEMA,” Inslee wrote. “I am further requesting the deployment of Department of Defense medical personnel to assist with the current hospital crisis. In announcing the COVID-19 Action Plan, the president indicated that more clinical teams would be available. That assistance will be of significant value in Washington state.”
According to Sauer, “What we understand initially is the contract is for 1,200 staff and that the contractor is initially able to fill about a quarter of that request and is hoping to be able to fill more.”
In the Puget Sound area, Virginia Mason Franciscan Health told The News Tribune that as of Monday it had 201 COVID-positive patients across its system, down from 219 patients a week ago.
MultiCare said it had 216 COVID patients currently hospitalized in its entire network, which includes Eastern Washington, compared with 207 just in the Puget Sound region as of Sept. 10.
Vaccine requirements request
Sauer told reporters Monday that WSHA has made a request of the governor to implement a vaccine/test verification mandate statewide, similar to the one announced last week in King County.
On Thursday, King County health officials announced a new health order to take effect Oct. 25, requiring proof of vaccination or a negative test in order to dine indoors, see a movie inside a theater or exercise at a gym in that county.
Sauer said the association also plans to write to “to all of the local health jurisdiction leaders around the state, urging them to ... adopt a similar vaccine verification system.”
Last week, Karen Irwin, COVID-19 communications lead for the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, told The News Tribune in response to whether TPCHD is considering a similar measure: ““Pierce County health leaders are exploring many strategies to encourage more people get vaccinated so we can end the pandemic.”
This story was originally published September 20, 2021 at 1:26 PM with the headline "Hospitalizations might be cresting, but deaths are on the rise in WA COVID-19 surge."
