BMH asks community to fight COVID-19
With approved treatments and a promising vaccine trial, some may wonder which tools hospitals have up their proverbial sleeves to fight COVID-19.
But, according to Butler Health System, the fight begins outside the hospital walls.
“What my chief nurse and what my physicians have said to me is, 'We need the community's help to keep our staff safe,'” Ken DeFurio, BHS president and CEO, said Thursday on a call with business and community leaders.
As the rate of COVID-19 infections soar in Butler County, jumping from 1,846 to 2,050 this week according to the Department of Health, it's just as important now as it was when the pandemic started this spring to take precautionary measures and “be smart.”
With Thanksgiving less than two weeks away and Christmas and other winter holidays coming shortly thereafter, it may also be harder than ever to not go out often or visit elderly family members. Still, Dr. John Love, the health system's director of infectious disease, said, it's urgent to take precautions.
“To answer a very common question, no, these are not all nursing home residents (who are admitted due to COVID-19). We have patients who are admitted, people who have died, from the community,” he said. “We have people who have died coming in after having a younger family member visit them.”
The health system doesn't do contact tracing — that's the Department of Health's duty — but Love said he's seen groups of coronavirus infections come from seemingly innocuous events.
“We definitely have had a cluster that was related to a baby shower,” he said. “We've definitely had clusters that are related to social family functions.”
Changing dynamic
Over the summer and early fall, the health system averaged between two and four COVID-19 hospitalizations at any given time. That's a “very manageable” number, Love said. But its current numbers, hovering between 25 and 30, pose a risk to hospital workers and make it harder for them to give ample care to all patients.
COVID-19 patients “require a heavier lift,” he added, and physicians and nurses have to wear more personal protective equipment than usual to care for patients with coronavirus-related respiratory issues. In the same vein, there's a reverse relationship between the number of COVID patients the hospital has and the amount of time its doctors and nurses can give to others.
“This is what we're facing. We have a significant increase in the number of cases in our community, we have a significant increase in the region and BMH is facing a significant increase in the admissions and deaths from COVID, with resultant strains on certain activities and people here,” Love said.
That doesn't mean BHS' facilities currently have staffing problems, DeFurio said, but it's something about which to be mindful.“We're OK, but if we start to have a problem with nursing staff, physician staff, respiratory therapy staff and others, we all of a sudden have a big problem in taking care of our patients,” he added.TestingIt'd be easy to look at the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the county and assume it's because a higher number of tests have been performed. But that isn't the case, the health system officials said.While the positivity rate for tests in the county had been around 5% in early autumn, the rate has skyrocketed to nearly 20% this week, according to data gathered from the Department of Health.Responding to a question about how many times samples are amplified — polymerase chain reaction tests work by amplifying the amount of genetic material there is in a sample, indicated by a number called the cycle threshold value — Love added that it's also not because the tests are more sensitive now, either.Dr. David Rottinghaus, BHS' chief medical officer, noted that the number of patients presenting with an influenza-like illness has been ticking up in the past few weeks, and that it has been “much different” than in past years during flu season.“Of course, the younger folks are more likely to do better with this, but we're definitely seeing an increase in the number of patients who are presenting with symptoms that are consistent with COVID or other influenza-like illnesses,” he said. “And, more often than influenza, we're finding them to be COVID-positive.”DeFurio summed up the increase in illnesses in the county succinctly.“We're busier than we have ever been with COVID-19 patients,” he said.A good defenseThe physicians and others at BHS indicated that the best offense against COVID-19 is a good defense.Handwashing, social distancing, wearing masks and self-isolating for at least 14 days if infected have been messages repeated by the Department of Health and other medical workers since the pandemic began. But they're still important — arguably now more than ever — with the sudden and sharp increase in infections in Butler County.On a day when Butler County officials urged residents to follow social distancing, wear masks and abstain from large gatherings, the health system had largely the same message: Be smart, keep safe and try to keep the virus at bay.“Help us to prevent the transmission of this disease, help us to keep everybody safe, and help us do the things necessary to keep our staff safe,” DeFurio said.
