UMC issued the following statement.
The impact of rising numbers of hospitalized COVID-19 patients at the University of Mississippi Medical Center will likely worsen before it gets better, hopefully with a downward trend to the current spike of the Omicron variant by late January or early February.
“It’s just stunning,” Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, told members of the media Tuesday. “We’re back to the party that no one wanted to come to.”
“We’re dealing with a shifting enemy, and it’s changed the rules of the game,” said Dr. Alan Jones, vice chancellor for clinical affairs and the Medical Center’s clinical COVID-19 response leader. “The sheer volume of patients is what’s overwhelming.”
As of 8 a.m. Tuesday, the Medical Center had 125 patients who were confirmed with the virus, awaiting test results or convalescing with COVID. A breakdown: 98 adults and 19 children confirmed, and of those numbers, 23 adults and three children are in the ICU; 19 adults and one child convalescing, meaning they’re no longer infectious, but not well enough to go home; and seven adults and three children awaiting test results.
On Dec. 15, the number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 was just 18.
Early Tuesday, the hospital was holding 25 admitted patients in its Emergency Department, waiting for a bed. “When the ICU gets full, when the med-surg beds get full, the ultimate place patients back up is in the Emergency Department,” said Jones, who with Woodward is an emergency medicine physician.
- The Omicron virus is much more contagious than the Delta variant, but tends to result in lower ICU numbers. But if you’re sick enough for ICU care, “it’s just as bad as Delta,” Woodward said.
Although the severity of illness from COVID-19 now is less than during Delta, Jones said, and turnover for hospitalized patients is quicker, there’s more demand for beds in the medical-surgical floors.
- Before the pandemic, the Medical Center’s average number of nurse openings was about 70. “We would shudder at that,” Jones said. Today, that number is 360, fueled mainly by nurses leaving the profession or lured away during a competitive market.
Adding to that is higher numbers of employees who are at home recovering from the virus or under quarantine. “It’s been 175 a day at some points,” Jones said of the 10,000 employee Medical Center. Of that number, today there are 80 to 90 front-line caregivers out on isolation alone.
“This is happening across the country,” said Woodward, UMMC’s COVID-19 incident commander. “Fifty-five to 59 beds are closed because we don’t have the staff to staff them.”
Although the Department of the Defense and the nonprofit Samaritan’s Purse in late summer set up and staffed COVID-19 treatment tents in UMMC parking lots. “We don’t see the cavalry coming over the horizon,” Jones said. If that was even an option, it would take weeks – and by that time, Mississippi might be on the other side of the current surge.
- During the Delta surge, between five and 10 people a day came to the Emergency Department with COVID-19 symptoms. “We’re triple that number now,” Jones said.
And although the Medical Center would never discourage anyone from getting emergency care if they believe they need it, Jones said, he encourages a trip to the ED for symptoms that are out of the ordinary- for example, chest pain, difficulty breathing or fever that won’t go down.
“I would not use the ED as a (COVID-19) testing station. We are overwhelmed,” Woodward said.
- Some patients are so ill they would benefit from monoclonal antibodies, and the only one effective against Omicron is in very short supply statewide, he said. UMMC uses all of the allotment it receives from the Mississippi State Department of Health. “We have tried to focus on the patients at the very highest risk, including the unvaccinated,” Jones said.
Jones said UMMC is accepting patients every day as the state’s top trauma center and with the state’s only children’s hospital. But, it must consider multiple factors when accepting the transfer of patients from other hospitals, whether sickened from COVID-19 or something else.
“There are certain types of patients that only UMMC can take ... but we must look at how we can best deploy our resources,” Jones said. “But when the system bogs down, hospitals are fighting with both arms behind their back.”
Mississippi MED-COM, housed at UMMC within the Mississippi Center for Emergency Services, provides emergency communications for hospitals and emergency providers throughout the state. Its staff tracks available ICU and regular patient beds statewide, on a minute-to-minute basis, and evaluates patient transfer requests based on what level of care the patient needs and the availability of resources.
On Tuesday, the Mississippi State Department of Health activated the mandatory Mississippi COVID System of Care to allow the most critically ill patients to be transferred for care without overburdening any one hospital. It means that when no beds are available, MED-COM must direct patients to hospitals on a rotating basis based on geography and resource availability.
“There are a lot of variables,” said Dr. Jonathan Wilson, chief administrative officer and COVID-19 incident manager. “We are trying to get patients to the best level of care possible.”
Where do the Medical Center and the state’s hospitals go from here?
“We are navigating this the best we can, but it’s a day-to-day, hour-to-hour process,” Jones said. “We’re doing the best we can to spread (our) resources around.”
The trajectory of Omicron cases now looks like a pattern of a rapid rise, then a rapid fall, Woodward said. But for now, “the only thing that will really help is to flatten the curve of people who are hospitalized.”
54 comments:
We need a mask mandate again since it worked so well during Delta and the first wave.
But, but, Pres. Joe Xiden said that he would stop the pandemic. Oh wait, most recently he said that it is a problem for the states to solve. How convenient.
Brandon is going to fix it
NY Post…
“we got spirt yes we do we e got spirit how about you?”
Clarion Ledger?
“Over 40% of NYC’s COVID-infected hospital patients admitted for other reasons”
I currently have Covid and I am to the point of coughing on you un masked / un vaccinated idiots!
Time for more dancing TikTok videos!
No one cares anymore. The anti-vax have never cared, and the pro-vax are vaxxed and done with it. A vast majority of the hospitalizations are unvaxxed. Choices have consequences. Good luck.
CDC director, Rochelle Walensky, had a rare moment of honesty this weekend and admitted that 75% of COVID deaths were people with at least 4 comorbidities. Four! Sadly, that’s most of Mississippi’s population. Masking and vaccinations won’t stop this.
We just need people not to be stupid asses. I saw a lady today at the grocery in an electric cart (for the handicapped), she weighed 300 pounds easily and she was proudly wearing a shirt that said “unvaccinated”. Her 50 days in the ICU will be charged to me and you.
I thought all the employees were vaccinated.
“Patients hospitalized with Covid”. This tells us nothing about whether the hospitalizations were because of covid versus hospitalized for any condition while incidentally having been diagnosed “with covid”. Also it would be of critical significance to know how many persons admitted need antibody treatments (those whose admission is because of covid).
We need this information to assess how significant the problem is. With the statement provided, we simply can’t.
"...Only thing that can help...is to flatten the curve..." as in flatten the curve of Type II diabetic bellies?
Truly: Absent soda pop, fried food, pink slime hot dogs on wonder bread, mac and cheese, candy, chips, donuts, Caramel Machiatas and lethargy, fewer Mississippians would have serious cases of this Chinese virus.
Reap what you sow. UMMC has spent the last 3 decades consolidating healthcare and hurting the smaller hospitals. Now the capacity no longer exists, and the employees at UMMC are learning that the image provided and the actual services that can be provided, are two different things.
Med-Com is a great example. They were supposed to lookout for the best interests of a patient. Instead they were dispatching UMMC helicopters even if a competitor was 100 miles closer!
Perhaps if your hospital didn’t forced staff to quit because they didn’t want to take experimental jabs, you’d have more staff
They should enact a vaccine mandate for employees. I’m sure that would result in more people wanting to work there.
@5:14, in an N95, just in time for the omicron head cold. We’ve now entered the twilight zone.
“I currently have Covid and I am to the point of coughing on you un masked / un vaccinated idiots!”
So I take it you wear a mask and have been vaccinated? And you still have Covid? Who’s the idiot again?
Woodward is an overpaid wannabe authoritarian. Her time in the spotlight is over. No one cares anymore.
how many people in ICU are there because covid put them there?
how many people in the hospital in general are there because covid put them there?
how many people in ICU are there because something else put them there but they happened to have tested positive for covid after getting to the hospital?
how many people in the hospital in general are there because something else put them there but they happened to have tested positive for covid after getting to the hospital?
how many of each of the above groups were vaccinated and how many were not vaccinated? of those groups that were vaccinated, when were they vaccinated? of each of those groups that were not vaccinated, how many have already had covid?
don't just tell me the hospital is full without giving more info, and instead, giving statements worded to imply that everyone in the hospital is there because covid put them there.
I thought it was all going to go away after the election?
I’ve reviewed the comments and 6:44 pretty much sums up my attitude at this point. I will add that I think healthcare workers probably care the most because they have to deal with this BS every day at their jobs. I don’t envy them, but I respect them.
On the TV news tonight, Jones said UMMC is short 360 nurses. That's why no patients can to assigned to 55 open beds at present.
The only thing overwhelming is the fear of the piss panty leftists and the tyrrany they are so willing to accept to alleviate that fear.
hmmm....thought the vaccine was going to keep the staff safe from covid
Mississippi leadership in most of its agencies has got to be the most ass-backward in the country. It's astonishing that the media even prints their cries for help after they've shot themselves in the foot so often. The "leaders" of Mississippi organizations and agencies abuse and neglect their staff daily, and then complain about "brain drain" and why they don't have enough staff. It's literally the most immature, idiotic bunch of hicks you could possibly find.
They run people off, then wail when there's no one to do the job. Just unbelievable. Zero understanding of organizational management.
Isn’t this the same arrogant woman that fired anyone that didn’t get the vaccine?
Now she wonders why she’s short of employees.
He humorous and arrogance is epic!
I believe nothing the medical establishment says.
Hawkeye and Pierce could figure this out. Citrizine, cigars and bourbon have kept me clear of covid.
Telling people to watch what they eat and be healthy will never work in this country. Too many free-dumbs. Michelle Obama tried it and was heavily criticized and mocked by right wing media. Bloomberg tried a soda tax and again certain media members encouraged people to exercise their freedom to eat unhealthy b
I have taken minimal precautions and cannot catch the damn cold.
I've had to work everyday of the scamdemic while others have been milking the free paid leave over and over and over with every stupid exposure.
By the time I ever do get the china-sniffles the world will have finally woken up and ended all this paid work absence business, and I will have missed out on thousands of dollars that my lazy comrades got for nothing.
The nurses aren’t leaving because of the vaccine mandate, they for the most part have studied science and know the vaccine is effective.They are leaving because they are burned out and tired of you idiots who refuse to get vaccinated or wear mask. Also if you can get on a plane work 3 days, make triple what you make here with all expenses paid including a round trip ticket home for your days off, why would you work here?
6:51, that's a lie. Snopes rates it as FALSE.
Facts: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did not say that all COVID-19 deaths involved people with four comorbidities. The CDC said that a new study found that 75% of such deaths among fully vaccinated individuals involved people with four comorbidities. Contrary to the posts above, this study supports the idea that vaccinations are quite effective against COVID-19.
Context matters, and you are spreading lies and disinformation.
8:34. agree. the freedom to eat yourself to death is a rallying cry.
“CDC director, Rochelle Walensky, had a rare moment of honesty this weekend and admitted that 75% of COVID deaths were people with at least 4 comorbidities. Four! Sadly, that’s most of Mississippi’s population. Masking and vaccinations won’t stop this.”
You left out that those deaths were studied amongst the vaccinated. An n-count of 36.
It’s a near statistical lock you’re not going to die from covid with the shot, unless you’re very sick.
You’re much more likely to die without the shot than with. Period.
But, in your case, don’t get the shot. Natural selection is at work here.
I’ve got an idea that may work, we should start a program to send out hcq and ivermectin or whatever the latest miracle cure is for free if they agree to stay away from the hospitals and quarantine at home. It would keep the proudly ignorant Facebook doctors from clogging the medical facilities.
I don't need the government to tell me how to 'not be fat'.
My Mom did not need Michelle Obama's directive to know that giving us only junk food for lunch was bad.
Maybe that is the problem.
The government does almost nothing effectively yet so many seem to earnestly believe in them and rely on them for wisdom.
I think Dr. Woodward is in over her head.
Why do most nurses work 3 shifts of 12 hours? That is 36 per week. I would like that question answered. If the ox is in the ditch, more hours should be placed on workers. That's how it works everywhere else. 36 hours? I remember my first part-time job also.
@11:03 said "I thought it was all going to go away after the election". It didn't go away, but the coverage by the media has been drastically different. Every case, every hospitalization, every death was all Trump's fault the media said. Now they don't blame anything on Biden. But I've been told it is the fault of Ron Desantis that COVID numbers are up in California.
I have an uncle in St. Dominic right now. He is old and has covid and will likely die from it. He didn't get vaccinated and he should have in my opinion (I am vaxxed but not boosted). But when dealing with him in the ER (before they moved him to a room with no visitors) I can assure you that St. Dominic didn't look understaffed. The nurses said they just work three 12-hour shifts weekly. There was lots of sitting around playing on their phones. Just a general nonchalant attitude. Nobody looked overworked or stressed or overly busy. It honestly looked like they were overstaffed.
Just asking. Can we truly say that the unvaccinated are the reason for Omnicrom. I mean this thing is running rampant in New York, California and they have shut down masked more than anyone. Chicago mayor has covid. Im just asking has it been scientificaly proven that the unvaccinated have done this to us. Or is like accusing Faucci of playing with the virus and making it worse. This adminsitration seems to do a lot of finger pointing at the wrogn people but im just wondering is their any science behind it
8:43 ......wrong. Before the Covid there was a shortage. Older nurses retire and not being replaced. CNA'S were the bell cows doing MOST of the work. So again, the shortage was BEFORE Covid. Not because of it.
Hypothesis - A tentative explanation for an observation, phenomenon, or scientific problem that can be tested by further investigation.
You get that for which you pay UMMC
Early report showing RSV is what is dominating kids and the covid tests cannot tell the difference. The covid test have never been able to tell the difference between novel coronas ! Now HCSS is about to close and go virtual because the TESTS ARE BUNK.
10:51 Of course not. It's been shown time and again that MANY more people in this hospital are vaxxed than what they're telling you. The reason the president and the media are telling you this is "a pandemic of the unvaccinated" is because they have to blame someone for their ineptness. Before the election of 2020, they told you they would "shut down Covid." However, now that Covid is MUCH worse than it was unter Trump, they have to bring out their newest bogeyman: the "Unvaccinated!" That group is now going to join the other long list of bogeymen, like "White Supremacists" and "Xenophobes" and "Homophobes" and "Transphobes" etc.....basically, names for people who otherwise disagree with the left or those who have caught them in their deluge of lies.
No, in looking at Omicron, forget this BS about the unvaccinated. It's been proven that both vaccinated (what a crappy term for a shot that doesn't, in fact, vaccinate anyone against anything) and unvaccinated can easily catch it and transmit it.
Remember this true statement: the "protected" are now demanding to be protected from the unprotected by forcing the unprotected to take the protection that didn't protect the "protected."
"Remember this true statement: the "protected" are now demanding to be protected from the unprotected by forcing the unprotected to take the protection that didn't protect the "protected." "
It makes my head hurt to follow this logic but I do believe this is a true statement :-(
Before Covid, there was a shortage of 70 nurses. Currently, UMMC is short 360 nurses.
Did they all go to Texas because Abbott banned a Texas nurse quitting work and going to work as a temp in Texas. They must leave the state. Methinks that's where the 290 nurses are that left UMMC.
CEO of Pfizer said Monday, outright said, the vaccines do nothing for omicron.
Left wing bought and paid for scum that runs The Government Hospital: “Go get yer jabs right now, citizen!”
@6:19, Well, 99.8% chance you’ll be wasting your spit
Michael Obama’s “healthy lunch initiative” was to remove most meat from the menu per the guidelines. Can’t have boys eating meat and producing testosterone.
You betcha it’s the unvaccinated but since ole Fish here is trying his best to be popular with right wing piss drinkers he can’t/won’t publish comments that agree with that theory.
Can you imagine the level of kickbacks (contributions) gushing from big pharma into the pockets feckless politicians?
Serious question: is there a government kickback for the hospitals that are forcing the vax?
Kingfish, let the purple haired antifa freak @7:33 post its “evidence”
7:33 ...everyone here knows KF loves the vax but even he knows now that he made a mistake in getting it. Yah see, vaxxed folks aren't actually vaxxed and in many cases are spreading the lab grown cash cow.
As I read these comments I clearly understand why people refer to we Mississippians the way that they do. UMMC is under duress and you blame Joe Biden not our own governor. You blame co morbidities EVEN if they were triggered by covid smh. We will continue to be DEAD LAST in every category thanks guys you're the best.
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