Some Virginians with coronavirus have stayed over 75 days in a hospital bed: new analysis
The average time Virginians stay in a hospital with the coronavirus is about two weeks, but some have gone over 75 days before being discharged, a new data analysis shows.
The Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association released statewide details and trends about people being treated for COVID-19 during a press briefing Thursday.
Using data collected from about 80 hospitals throughout Virginia from January to June, the organization provided new information about coronavirus hospitalizations, such as patients' average length of stay, ages, gender, race and insurance payer type. The study included more than 8,700 hospitalizations. (A different agency, the Virginia Department of Health, shows on its tracker that as of Thursday there had been 11,393 hospitalizations in the state.)
A few months into the pandemic, public health officials started to take note of striking racial disparities in those contracting the virus.
Through June, the association found that about 26% of all coronavirus hospitalizations were Black patients. For comparison, about 23% of all hospitalized conditions were Black, said David Vaamonde, VHHA’s vice president of data analytics. About 32% of the COVID-19 patients admitted were White.
Almost 39% of COVID-19 patients who stay in the hospital are on Medicare, slightly outpacing the 36% who have commercial insurance. That should make sense, Vaamonde said, given that the average age of these coronavirus patients is 68.
Heart and lung diseases and obesity have long been discussed as conditions that put some people at risk of serious illness from the virus. The association found that about 68% of all COVID-19 hospital patients also have hypertension. That’s followed by high rates of chronic kidney disease (49%), hyperlipidemia (46%), diabetes (43%), anemia (30%) and obesity (28%).
Dr. Mike McDermott, chairman of the association’s board of directors, used the briefing to advocate for $219 million in federal financial aid for Virginia hospitals, which he said are expected to lose more than $3 billion this year as a result of the pandemic.
Building field hospitals, adding beds and ventilators, buying personal protective equipment, establishing in-house coronavirus testing and conducting clinical trials have been costly undertakings, all while health care facilities were losing thousands of patients during the suspension of non-urgent medical procedures.
“Receiving even that amount would not come close to offsetting the multi-billion dollar financial impact hospitals face,” said McDermott, CEO of Mary Washington Healthcare. “But it would be an important show of support for Virginia’s hospitals and health systems as we continue to rise to the challenge of battling COVID-19.”
Elisha Sauers, elisha.sauers@pilotonline.com, 757-222-3864
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