To open up more bed space for COVID-19 patients, hospitals in the Quad Cities are limiting non-emergency surgeries. This week, Genesis Health System and UnityPoint Health Trinity will only be performing surgeries if there is a significant threat to the patient's health.
The decision comes as COVID-19 hospitalizations push triple digits, doubling previous record highs. Kurt Andersen, Chief Medical Officer at Genesis Health, says the number of his staff calling in sick is three times what it usually is this time of year.
"Health care workers have a mission to take care of people, so that's what they're doing. But it's hard on them. We have a lot of team members who are working longer hours than we wish they had to. We're stretching those resources, but we're going to continue to stretch them because we're preparing to have even more patients in the days and weeks ahead."
If the coming holiday spike overwhelms the hospital system, Andersen says Genesis Health will have to continue cutting back on other services.
"Surgeries was a place that we started, specifically surgeries that required in-patient hospitalization... Some of those types of surgeries will still have to go forward, though, because there are going to be life-threatening conditions that we can't delay. Those patients, we're still going to take care of. We're still doing all the other care that we need to provide for our community; people are still having strokes and heart attacks, but we're taking care of over 100 COVID patients, and earlier this year, we were taking care of, I don't know, maybe 30."
Right now, the reduction won't affect non-surgical procedures. But as COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to surge, that's subject to change.
Andersen advises anyone who thinks they might have COVID-19 to consult their primary care physician first, or call ahead before visiting the hospital.
