As Alaska coronavirus cases skyrocketed last week, more people with symptoms of COVID-19 began showing up in emergency rooms in Anchorage and Fairbanks.
Several hospitals in the state reported this week that it doubled, albeit with a very low number, of patients who went to the emergency rooms with coronavirus symptoms, some required admission and others were sent home under surveillance.
At Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, emergency physicians now see six to eight positive people with COVID-19 symptoms every day, with one to three admissions, including some sick enough to need intensive care, according to Dr. Andrew Elsberg, who is an employee of Alaska Emergency Medicine Associates and provides care in the Providence emergency department.
The sickest patients are struggling with very low oxygen saturations, Elsberg said.
“That increase in hospitalizations is real,” he said this week. “We are seeing more sicker patients. We are seeing more symptomatic positive patients. We are sending more people home on the home monitoring system. ”
Health officials generally encourage anyone experiencing the symptoms of COVID-19 to contact their health care providers first, rather than potentially exposing others. But visits to the emergency room can provide an early barometer of whether the virus is causing a major illness within a community.
Some hospital officials say they are seeing red flags.
Alaska case numbers are increasing with more than 300 positive tests reported since Saturday. About a third of the state’s active resident cases occurred last week. As of Tuesday, there were 1,153 people with active infections statewide out of a total of 1,899 confirmed cases since March.
Despite high daily counts, the state’s numbers still look good on paper. Therefore, state officials, the hospitals, now have sufficient capacity and also have plans to respond if COVID-19 hospitalizations increase.
Alaska’s hospitalization and death rates remain among the lowest in the nation, in part because new cases are increasing among people in their 20s and 30s who generally don’t get as sick from the virus, state epidemiologists say. However, they can spread it to the most vulnerable people, so officials are trying to find new ways to get younger people to keep their social distance, wear masks, and avoid large gatherings.
As of Tuesday, the state reported that a total of 92 Alaska residents have been hospitalized with the virus since March, ranking the state among a few in the United States with such low rates. The number included five new hospitalizations on Monday. Alaska’s death rate is one of the lowest in the country. Seventeen Alaska residents have died from the virus.
The state’s health care capacity remains good at the moment, hospital officials say, but it will take at least a week to see if the number of patients continues to rise, which could collide with limited beds and staff.
The Alaska State Association of Hospitals and Elders, in an op-ed this week, said the hospital’s capacity was not “OK” and noted the risk of outbreaks in nursing homes.
Hospital CEOs in a conference call Monday morning agreed that the state’s healthcare capacity numbers are a lagging indicator, the association’s president and CEO Jared Kosin said. “By the time our indicators turn red, it would be too late.”
Nursing homes are now required to perform general benchmark tests for all workers and residents, which some were already doing, Kosin said. They are evaluating workers and limiting visits so that residents cannot see the family.
“The worse COVID comes out of nursing homes, the more restrictive the environment becomes,” he said. “Don’t trust the hospital’s ability to be the answer. This is a much more damaging effect, especially on our vulnerable populations. “
Alaska definitely has more people hospitalized now, there were 18 patients with COVID-19 on Monday, but well below national rates, said Dr. Anne Zink, the state’s chief medical officer. Still, hospitals are increasingly busy with summer trauma cases and other virus-free patients filling beds.
“We are watching closely,” Zink said in a briefing on Monday where Gov. Mike Dunleavy said he had not planned immediate terms amid growing state case cases.
The increase in admissions to the emergency room has signaled an increase in hospitalizations in some states. When asked about that, state epidemiologist Dr. Joe McLaughin said that certain aspects of Alaska’s COVID-19 situation set him apart.
The state has experienced few large outbreaks in long-term care facilities, apart from one in the Providence Transitional Care Center in Anchorage that killed two residents, McLaughlin said. The state has not seen a large outbreak in a prison; There was a group among the employees of the Lemon Creek Correctional Center. Workers in the fishing sector, who could have contributed to outbreaks like those in the 48 meat packing plants, were required by state to quarantine.
“Those are some things that are different here in Alaska so far,” he said.
Some rural hospitals also say they are not seeing an increase in patients.
In Bethel, the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corp. emergency room has not seen an increase in people with flu-like symptoms or COVID-19, according to Dr. Ellen Hodges, chief of staff.
Ketchikan hospital officials say they are not seeing more patients in the emergency room, either. Most of the recent positive tests in that Southeast Alaska city are symptom-free travelers who were screened when they arrived at the airport, according to PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center spokeswoman Mischa Chernick.
However, at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, the director of the emergency department, Dr. Michael Burton, said he is noting that the daily case is “scared” due to rising positivity rates on state tests. Fairbanks is seeing a sudden increase in confirmed cases.
“We went from a handful of patients a day that we thought had a symptom compatible with COVID disease to probably double over the course of the past few days over the weekend,” Burton said Monday.
Like state health officials, people who work in hospitals across the state are pleading with Alaska residents to cover their faces, keep at least 6 feet away from others in public places, and practice sound hygiene. to curb rising positive cases and ensure that hospitals can continue to stay. Open at current levels.
Julie Taylor, executive director of Alaska Regional Hospital in Anchorage, says she wishes she could find “a more compelling reason” to convince Alaska residents to practice safeguards like social distancing and avoid large groups.
Regional has plenty of room right now, Taylor said. But the hospital-owning chain also owns facilities in hot spots like Texas and Florida, where a similar scenario turned into overwhelming capacity in a week to 10 days.
Administrators are warning you to prepare.
“How do we get Alaska residents to pay attention when they feel like we’re the last to stay?” Taylor said. “Really, what we have to do is learn from those who have gone before us.”
