Area hospitals continue seeing increase in COVID patients
Published 12:15 am Sunday, August 22, 2021
The Medical Center at Bowling Green, TriStar Greenview Regional Hospital and Glasgow’s T.J. Samson Community Hospital are all seeing increasing numbers of COVID-19 patients, the health care organizations said Friday.
Med Center Health Vice President Wade Stone told the Daily News the hospital was at full capacity.
The Medical Center on Friday morning had 51 COVID-19 positive patients, up from the 47 patients it reported Tuesday. He said 13 of those are on ventilators, and about 75% of its COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated.
“We have amazing staff who are doing everything in their power to care for the patients who need us now more than ever,” Stone said. “We are currently full. We continue to look at the surgery schedule on a daily basis and make adjustments to that schedule as we can. We continue to have patients at surrounding hospitals who are searching for a bed, but we are just at capacity right now.”
When asked if the The Medical Center was short-staffed, Stone noted staffing “remains a challenge” with many workers out with COVID-related illnesses.
He said 99% of all physicians at the hospital were vaccinated. The vaccination rate of all employees was greater than 80%.
“Our vaccination rate for employees is fluid and it continues to increase,” Stone said. “We continue to encourage everyone in our community to get vaccinated.”
Stone said Med Center Health has administered 89,302 doses of COVID-19 vaccine across its system in the region.
T.J. Regional Health Executive Vice President of Marketing Stacey Biggs said the Glasgow hospital now has 23 COVID-19 patients, an increase from the 20 it reported Tuesday. None of those 23 individuals are fully vaccinated.
She said the hospital was nearing capacity Friday.
“Something I thought was interesting – just two weeks ago we had 11 (COVID-19 patients),” she said. “But we have gotten as high as 30 individuals. … We do still want people to know that if they have any emergency situation, they should still come to the emergency room and seek care. Our fear is that because the numbers are what they are people may be afraid to come in for an emergency. We will take care of you.”
Biggs said the Glasgow hospital is seeing COVID patients in different age groups. The vast majority were over age 65 last winter, but five of the current 23 patients are 30 to 49 years old.
“It’s just more spread out now,” she said. “If I can say one thing it’s that the best way to protect your family is to get the vaccine.”
TriStar Greenview Regional Hospital Marketing Manager Michael Ferguson told the Daily News on Friday the hospital is now caring for 30 patients with COVID-19. Just one week ago, Greenview had 12 COVID-19 patients.
When asked how close it was to capacity, how many patients were in the ICU and how many were unvaccinated, Ferguson did not provide a response.
The latest update from the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Human Services on Friday said all 10 counties in the Barren River region were marked red for having a “critical” COVID-19 incidence rate. Out of the 10 counties, only four had a vaccination rate of at least 40% (Warren, Simpson, Logan and Barren).