ROCK ISLAND, Ill — As Covid-19 hospitalizations reach an all-time high in the United States, staff at UnityPoint Health - Trinity are now pleading with the public to implement personal safety measures, such as wearing masks, washing hands, and staying socially distant. This comes as an enormous spike in coronavirus cases in our area puts a strain on regional hospitals. Many, like UnityPoint, are now nearing capacity.
"Right now, we're just being innovative to create one more bed wherever we can," said Dr. Toyosi Olutade, chief medical officer for UnityPoint Health - Trinity. "But really, we are at maximum capacity.
He says our region is seeing a surge in cases unlike anything they were expecting to reach, as more than 300 people in our area test positive every day. Dr. Olutade says about 10% of those people end up needing to be hospitalized - many, staying for several days, weeks or even months. Their long stays putting an even greater strain on an overwhelmed system.
"It's tough to absorb 20-30 new patients with Covid every day," said Dr. Olutade.
He says the hospital has about 60 coronavirus patients, including nearly 20 in the ICU, which he says demands over half of the ICU's capacity. According to Dr. Olutade, the numbers are nearly double what they saw in March and April.
For some patients, that means being forced to wait in the emergency room for hours, sometimes up to a full day, as they wait for a bed to open up. Elective surgeries have also been cut back, on a case-by-case basis, especially those that require a several-day recovery, as the hospital says they need to keep those beds free.
"We're doing everything we possibly can, but we're beginning to almost ration what resources we have. If you look at when Covid began in March and April, and we saw what was happening in New York, we're heading in that direction right now," said Dr. Olutade. "We're higher than we ever thought we'd be."
It's a story seen across the region, as hospitals are filling up, staff is stretched thin, and resources begin to dwindle again. Dr. Olutade says they've been working closely with Genesis hospitals, who are also feeling the strain. They've reached out to the University of Iowa, OSF Peoria, Methodist Peoria, Cedar Rapids, Mercy hospitals and more, but no beds can be found.
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"It's not like [patients] can pick and choose and go somewhere else. We're all in the same boat, which is why it's a very, very serious situation," he remarked.
Beyond the search for beds, he says there's also a very tangible human burden at stake for the staff. Quad Cities hospitals have been reporting an exponential rise in cases of staff testing positive. Almost always, they say, the member picked up the virus somewhere out in the community. And when they need to stay at home to quarantine, it means even less people to help care for the rising number of patients.
"Even when we have the bed capacity, we don't have the people," noted Dr. Olutade. "Beyond the physical beds, It's so sad when we see our staff getting exposed. In the hospital, we take all the precautions. But there's so much community spread, that just doing your daily activities often exposes you to Covid unknowingly."
Now, he's pleading with the public to enact social distancing, to wear masks, and to wash their hands. It's a situation where he says the best way the community can help the hospitals help them, is by stopping the rise in case numbers.
That, more than any well wishes or support from the public, would be the best thing concerned residents could do, he says.
"The reality is that it is tough," notes Dr. Olutade.
"When you come into the hospital it is tough. When you know you have this many Covid patients you're gonna take care of all day, it is tough. It is tough to be in PPE all day. It’s tough not to be able to interact with people, socially, to get a breather, because you have to maintain social distancing. It is tough to see patients that are maybe [young] that are very sick with Covid - on the ventilator or breathing machine. You look at them and they are [young] and still they are sick. It’s tough to see people that celebrate their birthdays on the hospital beds because of Covid. It is tough to see how the families are suffering from the fact that their loved ones have Covid and are very sick. It’s tough to see that patient that would have otherwise been discharged from the hospital in three days, four days, [now] spending 15 days in the hospital - some are spending weeks, some are spending months - because they are that sick. It is tough."