Idaho adds 1,344 cases, 32 deaths as hospitals try to cope with COVID-19 hardships

After breaking a record for the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations on Monday, the state has watched the situation at hospitals become even more dire.

At a press conference on Thursday, doctors at St. Luke’s Health System, the state’s largest health care provider, said they have more COVID-19 patients than they did last week. On Sept. 16, the state began allowing hospitals to ration care at the request of St. Luke’s.

Dr. Frank Johnson, chief medical officer for St. Luke’s Boise, Elmore and McCall, said the hospital had 315 hospitalized COVID-19 patients on Thursday — a new record. In July, the system had just 30 coronavirus patients, meaning a tenfold increase over the past two months.

“Our ICU capacity is at all-time highs,” he said. “We’re worse.”

All St. Luke’s facilities are operating under crisis standards of care, and the hospital system’s buildings are struggling to pump the amount of oxygen patients need into hospital wards, Johnson said. The stamina of hospital nurses, who are already working extra shifts and caring for more patients than normal, is wearing thin, he said.

“We’re running as hard as we can,” Johnson added.

Though St. Luke’s has not yet had to deny emergency, life-saving care to a patient because of a lack of resources, Johnson said decisions like that are a distinct “possibility” in the near future.

Other health care providers and public health districts in Idaho continue to struggle with the high COVID-19 numbers.

The Idaho National Guard is returning to Primary Health Medical Group, a major primary and urgent care provider in the Treasure Valley, to help deal with its large numbers of patients.

At the end of August, Primary Health announced that it would be closing early each day to make sure each patient arriving during open hours could be seen. Because of the large number of patients over the past month, Primary Health has “had to essentially turn patients away or delay their care by closing our clinics early so staff can catch up,” said Dr. David Peterman, Primary Health CEO, in a Thursday release.

With the help of the Guard, Primary Health clinics will return to normal hours starting Friday.

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Central District Health told the Idaho Statesman by email that the health district, which covers Ada, Boise, Elmore and Valley counties, has a backlog of 5,000 to 6,000 COVID-19 lab test results to process. Though people who test positive are generally notified of their results by their provider, CDH’s process of notifying residents about proper quarantine and safety measures is delayed due to the backlog.

Some of the results still needing to be processed date from Sept. 12, the CDH spokesperson said.

At South Central Public Health District, which covers Blaine, Camas, Cassia, Gooding, Jerome, Lincoln, Minidoka and Twin Falls counties, residents are being asked to self-report details of their COVID-19 illnesses because case investigators are overwhelmed.

“Nearly every county is seeing outbreaks in local schools, illness spreading through businesses, and disease investigators who can’t keep up with the rate cases are being reported,” said Logan Hudson, SCPHD division administrator, in a Thursday news release.

And last Thursday, the Southern Idaho Conference of high school sports noted in a news release that students who get injured during sports “should expect delays in medical attention as hospitals are overwhelmed.” The conference said it would not be suspending any sports activities.

Amid the crisis, Idaho added another 1,344 cases on Thursday and 32 deaths, according to data from the Department of Health and Welfare.

The seven-day moving average of new cases stood at nearly 1,224 on Thursday.

Since the start of the pandemic, the state has seen 10,878 COVID-19 hospitalizations and 1,813 intensive care patients, according to state data. There have been 2,719 deaths and 248,091 total cases.

SIGNS OF POSSIBLE CASE DECLINE?

Though hospitalizations are still rising, there are some signs that case rates might finally be falling.

Dr. Laura McGeorge, St. Luke’s medical director for primary care, said at Thursday’s news conference that the hospital system’s percentage of COVID-19-positive patients has decreased slightly since last week, but that it was too soon to tell whether it’s a “blip” or a bigger sign.

The statewide test positivity rate also fell slightly for the week of Sept. 12, to 16.4%. The week of Sept. 5 it was 17.4%. That rate is still very high, as public health experts consider any level of spread over 5% to be significant and out of control.

McGeorge noted that in previous surges, a rise in cases in the community is followed by a rise in hospitalizations, which in turn is followed by more intensive care patients and deaths, meaning high numbers of hospitalizations and deaths could continue even after case rates start to decline.

On Thursday, McGeorge also stressed the strain that health care workers are under, noting that the support from the community has fallen since last year.

“We’re also seeing a lot of people being less generous to their neighbors and friends that are health care workers,” she said. “They’re going through a lot right now, and anything that we can do to show our support for their physical and emotional exhaustion would be really, really appreciated by all of them.”

Since the start of the pandemic, 11,829 health care workers have been infected with COVID-19.