With Bloomington Hospital moving Sunday, COVID antibody treatment appointments are limited

Nicole DeCriscio-Bowe developed a fever in the early morning of Nov. 24, then a nasty cough. Her employer requires a COVID-19 test for symptoms such as these, and there was Thanksgiving with her in-laws the next day to consider.

So she drove to a CVS in Terre Haute that Wednesday, the closest place offering immediate rapid testing for the virus. She got the results while headed home to Bloomington.

"I was on my way back when I got the notification on my phone and I thought, 'Oh crap, it's COVID. It's not a cold.' I called my primary care physician and she said to quarantine and rest, and if it got really bad, I needed to go to the ER."

The 27-year-old hasn't been vaccinated against the coronavirus, nor has her husband, who got sick on Thanksgiving and tested positive the next day.

When they decided to seek antibody treatment days later, there turned out to be a shortage of slots available at IU Health Bloomington Hospital because this is the weekend patients are being moved across town to its new facility.

Approved for antibody infusion

Because of underlying heath issues, both DeCriscio-Bowe and her husband are eligible to receive monoclonal antibody treatment, an outpatient infusion approved by the FDA a year ago to reduce the severity of COVID-19 symptoms in some patients.

DeCriscio-Bowe was feeling somewhat better by Monday, but her cough and congestion lingered. Her husband, Phil, felt worse than she did, and on Tuesday their doctors approved them for the treatment at IU Heath Bloomington Hospital. She was to get the infusion at 8:15 a.m. Friday and him, three hours later.

Wednesday afternoon, DeCriscio-Bowe got a call from the hospital "informing me that because they are moving to the new hospital this weekend, they have limited the number of infusions they could do on Friday. They asked me if I would be willing to drive to the hospital in Paoli, and I was like, 'I don't want to, I feel really cruddy, but I will if I have to,' and they were making it seem that was my only option, and said there was one spot left."

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She told the person who called that her husband's symptoms were worse, and he needed the treatment more than she did.

DeCriscio-Bowe said when she called the hospital patient advocate, there was mention of sending the couple to IU Health Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis for their infusions.

Time was running out; the IV treatment of proteins that block the virus from entering human cells must be given within 10 days of the onset of symptoms.

Issue resolved

About 8 o'clock Wednesday night, DeCriscio-Bowe got a phone message from IU Health Bloomington Hospital's director of emergency services saying a scheduler would call Thursday and that the treatment was tentatively set for 8:30 Friday morning in Bloomington.

"We found a nurse to come in to do infusions for you and your husband. We will get you the infusions on Friday," the caller said.

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DeCriscio-Bowe said it didn't seem right to limit treatment during a pandemic because of the move to a new hospital, especially given recent spikes in cases and deaths in the state, and the emerging Omicron variant. She vowed to get vaccinated.

"I'm fortunate enough and I can breathe well enough to drive an hour if I need to, but not everyone can. And why did they call someone to schedule for that day if that day was off? Why wasn't there a better plan for this?"

She said the time-sensitive antibody treatment should be a priority. "I hope the right thing was done for other patients and not just for us because I made some noise," she said.

Move did impact treatment

A hospital spokesperson confirmed in an email that to ensure a smooth transition to the new hospital this Sunday, some services, including the monoclonal antibody treatment, were temporarily limited.

IU Health Bloomington Hospital doubled its monoclonal antibody treatment appointments Monday-Thursday this week, the statement said, in anticipation of the move. "We have also coordinated with other IU Health facilities to ensure patients that needed to receive treatment could be scheduled elsewhere in our system."

The hospital recommends that antibody treatment be scheduled "as soon possible in order to reduce the severity of the illness. Scheduling as early as possible also reduces the risk of running into availability or capacity issues."

Vaccinations and and booster shots, the statement said, will reduce the need for the antibody infusions since fewer people will contract the virus. "We continue to ask our communities to do their part in protecting themselves and others from COVID-19."

Contact reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com, 812-331-4362 or 812-318-5967.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: IU Health Bloomington move limits patient access to COVID treatment