The Medical Center at Bowling Green was at full capacity Friday, emergency room medical director Dr. William Moss said.

An official from T.J. Samson Community Hospital in Glasgow said it was nearing capacity, and a spokesperson with TriStar Greenview Regional Hospital in Bowling Green said it had open capacity but was seeing an increase in COVID patients as well.

Moss said The Medical Center is conducting “waiting room medicine” because of the large numbers of patients who are “constantly” waiting in the emergency waiting room. All of the hospital’s beds were full, he said, and the ICU was full as well.

In total, The Medical Center had 47 COVID-19 patients, with 11 of those on ventilators.

If the number of people on ventilators reaches 30, he said patients would have to be placed in other areas of the hospital.

“I’ve been here since 2001, and we have always had open availability, but now we are having to limit our transfers,” Moss said. “One of the things that’s really frightening right now is we have very few backup options now. All of our other hospitals we go to are also full right now.”

When asked what actions the hospital could take if more patients arrived, Moss was uncertain.

“We are trying to open the envelope as much as we can,” he said. “We don’t have many other answers at this point. It’s very frightening, and every day it seems to get worse. The process is evolving day by day. We have people in our hallways now. We call down staff when we can. We are trying to promote vaccination as much as we can right now.”

The hospital had 47 COVID-19 patients Friday and 52 systemwide. Of those 47, he said at least 80% were unvaccinated. Of the COVID patients in the emergency room, Moss said the unvaccinated number was nearly 90%.

None of the COVID patients were children.

The Medical Center sends those cases to regional pediatric hospitals such as Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital and Norton Children’s Hospital in Louisville. Moss said he wasn’t aware of any such pediatric cases that had been sent to those locations.

Jessica Pasley, media relations manager for Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, said it wasn’t having capacity issues. As of Wednesday, the latest day that data was reported, the Vanderbilt hospital had 14 COVID patients.

“While many pediatric hospitals have reported incredibly high volumes, we are not seeing the same level of hospitalizations at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt,” she said. “We are currently experiencing higher inpatient volumes due to RSV, other childhood illnesses, summertime trauma injuries as well as COVID-19.”

Moss said nearly 25% of The Medical Center’s outpatients who tested positive for the virus were under 18. Moss also said several staff members were out with COVID-19.

“We ask two things for the public: Please have patience,” he said. “The wait time in the ER will be as long as possible. And two: Please, please get vaccinated.”

As of Friday morning, he said, a total of 88,510 vaccines had been administered by Med Center Health across its corporate system.

TriStar Greenview Regional Hospital Marketing Manager Michael Ferguson said his hospital was treating 12 COVID-19 patients, none of which were children, as of Friday afternoon. He said while “there is a continual flow of patients admitted and discharged from the units,” Greenview had not hit its capacity.

Ferguson said Greenview had seen an increase in COVID patients.

“As we see increasing rates of infections of COVID-19 across the country and in southern Kentucky, especially among the unvaccinated population, we continue to encourage people in our area to get the vaccine and follow the CDC’s recommendations,” he said.

Elsewhere in southcentral Kentucky, T.J. Regional Health Executive Vice President of Marketing Stacey Biggs said the hospital was treating 28 COVID-positive patients.

She said that matched the highest number it has seen since the beginning of the pandemic.

Of those patients, 14 were 65 or older and only two of the 28 had been fully vaccinated. None of the patients were children.

“Four of the patients are in the ICU,” Biggs said. “Our hospital, along with many other hospitals, are nearing capacity. We currently have patients holding in the emergency department waiting for bed assignments.

“We have seen another increase this week in vaccine appointments, which seems to be a positive trend across the state and the country,” she said. “We are also working to expand the number of locations where vaccines are offered to make them even more easily accessible. We know that some people face barriers such as transportation, and our goal is to remove those barriers to the extent possible.”

The latest update from the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Human Services 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 three had a vaccination rate of at least 40% (Warren, Simpson and Logan).

Eligible people ages 12 and up seeking the Pfizer vaccine can walk in during regular business hours at Med Center Health from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Sunday, or they can call or text COVID to 270-796-4400 to make an appointment.

T.J. Samson Community Hospital in Glasgow continues to offer the Moderna vaccine to individuals 18 and older. Appointments are available in the IV therapy department. To make an appointment there, call 270-659-1010.