By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Chuck Welch with Hutchinson Regional Healthcare System notes that staff is starting to get stretched again with the census at 73 as of Monday.
"Depending on acuity, we are able to staff around 90 beds," Welch said. "We are keeping a close eye on that, for sure."
The issue is that COVID patients require acute care, even if they aren't in intensive care.
"There really is no non-acute COVID patient," Welch said. "They can get severe very quickly. We have to watch their oxygen levels, their respiratory rates, all of their vital signs. Currently, we have 13 unvacccinated COVID patients, actually 14 total receiving some sort of breathing support. I believe three or four of those actually have the breathing tubes inside of them, which are the most critical, highest acute patient, but we have another 10 of those that are on some sort of breathing apparatus, whether it be a BiPap or an Airvo, which are pretty severe in and of themselves."
Pre-COVID, many of those BiPap or Airvo patients would have been in the ICU.
"This is still the Delta variant that's driving this surge," Welch said. "It's purely from, the weather's getting a little colder, people are condensing, maybe laxing on their protection techniques, washing hands, social distancing and all those measures we practiced last year."
Welch said if you have a high-risk family member, you especially need to pay attention to prevention measures, and he personally might consider not seeing them for Christmas, regardless of your personal immunity status, if they are immune compromised.