Federals also apologize for sending fewer doses of vaccine than expected.
(Rick Egan | Tribune file photo) Taylor Woodrow tests Covid-19 at Intermountain Healthcare Cottonwood InstaCare on Friday, December 11, 2020.
Intensive care units in Utah hospitals have never been hit so hard during the pandemic – with many of them beyond full official – as the state reported another 2,408 cases of COVID-19 and eight more deaths on Saturday.
The percentage of all beds occupied at the state level is now 99.4%, ie 534 out of 537 filled beds.
At the 14 largest hospitals dealing with most coronavirus cases, the rate of ICU beds now occupied is 104.1%, or 480 patients, which exceeds their official capacity of 461 beds.
With COVID-19 out of the ordinary, intensive care units at the University of Utah Health reached a point earlier this week when “I couldn’t admit anyone and it took a few hours” before the beds opened when some Patients left or were transferred, said Dr. Kencee Graves, chief nurse there.
This happened even though the university earlier this year – as the coronavirus threat increased – turned part of the space into a new intensive care unit with 23 beds beyond its 111 normal places.
On Saturday, Graves said the university is official at 115% of normal capacity, filling all 111 regular beds, plus many in the surge unit.
He faces many challenges beyond just bed, Graves said.
“You have to have a physical bed, a safe space for the bed and staff to take care of the person in bed,” she said. So we had to do all these things. “
This includes the need to ask intensive nurses and doctors to work two to four additional shifts a month, “many of them at night,” she said.
Several intensive care teams were formed by moving doctors and nurses from elsewhere and removing residents from some of their normal rotations. Some surgeries were delayed, she said, because patients would need an intensive care bed.
Utah hospitals are also working together, Graves said, so if an intensive care unit at one is full, patients can be sent to another space. Graves said the University Hospital also serves people around Intermountain West, it is also carefully checking transfers to make sure they need the extra care available here and that it can be provided.
“We still have many very sick patients there. So we have a lot of deaths, “Graves said. However, she said that a good sign is that the rate of positive test results has started to decline recently. Fewer cases now means fewer hospitalizations and more people in the ICU later.
Dr. Eddie Stenehjem, an infectious disease physician at Intermountain Healthcare, also told reporters at a video conference on Friday that once COVID-19 patients enter intensive care, “it’s usually not a short hospital stay.”
He said: “Often the average stay is between 10 and 11 days. So, it takes a while for these patients to either feel good enough where they can then get out of the ICU – or, unfortunately, pass. ”
The state reported on Saturday that 559 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19. The total number of hospitalizations since the beginning of the outbreak is now 9,968.
The head of Operation Warp Speed, General Gustave F. Perna, said that some of the problems resulting from the federal government’s miscalculation of how many doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine could be shipped.
“It was my fault,” he said. “It was a planning error and I’m responsible.”
Utah will receive 16,575 doses next week “instead of the 23,400 we were planning for,” health officials wrote on Twitter – a reduction of about 30%.
The health department reported Saturday that 3,648 people received the vaccine in Utah, but said the reported number could remain for several days.
In a statement on Friday, Intermountain Healthcare – which administered the vaccine in several hospitals to front-line medical workers – said it was “grateful for what we received and delighted that we had started vaccinating our carers.” We will adapt as we have the whole pandemic and we will administer the vaccine as we receive it. “
Similarly, University of Utah Health officials said that “we are currently busy vaccinating our teams with the supply we now have at home. We will adjust our launch plan as needed. “
Both Intermountain and the University of Utah Health have urged Utahns to continue to wear face masks, practice social distancing, wash their hands and stay home if they are ill.
The rate in Utah over the past seven days has been 80 infections per 100,000 residents, significantly higher than the national average of 67 per 100,000.
The eight deaths reported on Saturday included:
• Five Salt Lake County residents – two men, one 46-64 and the other 65-84; three women, one 46-64 and two 65-84
• A Box Elder County man, 65-84.
• A man from Utah County, over 85 years old.
• A woman from Davis County, between 45 and 64 years old.
The total number of deaths in Utah from coronavirus rose to 1,148 on Saturday.
The average of 7 days for positive tests is 2,454 per day. The average of 7 days for percentages of positive laboratory tests is 22.1%, which remained constant on Saturday.