CoxHealth and Mercy warn of crisis
November 18, 2020
Sheila Harris
In a Monday afternoon media briefing, CoxHealth CEO, Steve Edwards, and media spokesperson, Kaitlyn McConnell, spoke openly about the crisis facing southwest Missouri residents due to the surge in COVID-19 cases.
“If the current upward trend in cases continues,” Edwards said, “in three weeks, hospitals in southern Missouri will be overwhelmed.”
For rural hospitals, such as Monett and Cassville, that means the possibility of not being able to transfer critically ill patients to larger facilities in Springfield and the surrounding area due to a shortage of beds.
As a Level 1 tertiary care center for Greene and surrounding rural counties, Cox South (along with Mercy Springfield) handles the bulk of acute COVID-19 patients in their service area, which includes about a million people, according to Edwards.
“We work with our smaller hospitals - Branson, Monett and Lamar,” Edwards said, “to help them determine which COVID-19 patients should be transferred directly to Springfield for more intensive care.”
According to Edwards, only about 25 percent of current COVID-19 patients are from Greene County.
“The bulk of the cases, 70 to 75 percent, are coming in from rural counties, places where masks aren’t being worn as much,” Edwards said.
Valerie Davis, the administrator of Mercy Hospitals in both Cassville and Aurora, offered information which does nothing to dispel concerns.
“For Cassville, during the month of October, we saw a 30 percent increase in our inpatient volume,” she said. “Already, in November, we’ve admitted more patients to the hospital than we did the entire month of November last year. If that holds, we will see an increase of 112 percent in inpatient admissions for November compared to last year.
“On an average day,” she continued, “we have three to five COVID-19-positive patients, in addition to our non-COVID patients. Our co-workers, providers and leaders are working tirelessly to ensure we can care for every single patient in our community who needs us. Caring for COVID patients takes a toll on all health care workers, but it is especially difficult in a small community where a majority of the patients you are caring for are neighbors, friends and family. We ask that our community work alongside us to reduce the spread by wearing masks and practicing social distancing.”
Davis added that in the last two weeks, more than 400 people were tested for COVID-19 in Mercy’s clinic and hospital. Almost 40 percent of those tested were positive, more than double what they saw in the two weeks prior.
“Due to limited bed availability in our region and the state as a whole, we are caring for a majority of local COVID patients in our Cassville facility,” Davis said. “If our patients require ICU level care we work with the larger facilities to transfer the patient.”
CoxHealth CEO, Steve Edwards, said that with foreknowledge of the pending COVID-19 crisis imparted by medical professionals in the initially hard-hit areas of Seattle, Washington, and Madrid, Spain, Cox South designed and constructed a 51-bed COVID-19 unit in April as part of a larger 147-bed project. It sat unoccupied for two months. It’s now filled to capacity.
According to Edwards, not only is bed-capacity a concern, so, too, is finding the staffing for patient care.
“Our doctors are working heroically,” he said, “and we’re hiring travelling nurses who are proving to be very, very helpful to us since they have previous experience with treating COVID patients. We pay a premium price to hire them. They stay for a rotation, then move on. If someone offered us 300 skilled nurses today, we’d take them all.”
The 51-bed COVID ICU unit is an open unit, which allows for the easier oversight of patients, according to Edwards.
“We believe we can offer a better quality of care with this type of unit,” Edwards said. “Of the patients in the 51 beds, about three quarters of them are on ventilators. About half of them are past the point of being contagious, but are still in need of acute care.
“Nobody would want to be a patient in that unit, in part because of the noise factor,” Edwards continued, “but many of those who recover have no memory of the experience.”
Edwards said, so far, Cox has not had a single transmission of COVID-19 among staff who work in the unit.
“They see firsthand the negative effects of COVID-19, so they’re extremely conscientious about their personal protective habits,” he said.
“I have no doubt, though,” he continued, “when this is over, they will suffer from PTSD. Right now, they’re operating on adrenaline, but when this crisis is past, it can come back to haunt them.
“Our healthcare workers and others have spent the past eight months making personal sacrifices in the face of the pandemic,” Edwards said, “but the real risk is now. It’s here. We’re begging people to wear masks and not to gather for the holidays. If we don’t slow the spread of this virus, we won’t be able to help everyone who gets sick. We’re filling beds with COVID-19 patients that would normally be used for other types of patients.”
Edwards cited the example of a man who arrived at Texas County Memorial Hospital in Houston, Missouri, last week in need of emergency neurosurgery. The hospital spent the next 25 hours trying to find a bed for him in the surrounding six-state area. According to Edwards, a neuro-ICU bed was finally found in Iowa City, Iowa, where they saved his life with only minutes to spare.
Cox South currently works with Mercy Springfield to provide care for outlying areas.
“If one of us is full, we divert patients to the other facility, but that might not always be possible. Big cities might not always be able to come to the rescue in the face of this pandemic if the increase in numbers continues,” Edwards said. “I know I’m preaching, but we’re very concerned. Please, please help us slow the spread of the virus by wearing masks. They’ve been proven to help.”
In a Monday afternoon media briefing, CoxHealth CEO, Steve Edwards, and media spokesperson, Kaitlyn McConnell, spoke openly about the crisis facing southwest Missouri residents due to the surge in COVID-19 cases.
“If the current upward trend in cases continues,” Edwards said, “in three weeks, hospitals in southern Missouri will be overwhelmed.”
For rural hospitals, such as Monett and Cassville, that means the possibility of not being able to transfer critically ill patients to larger facilities in Springfield and the surrounding area due to a shortage of beds.
As a Level 1 tertiary care center for Greene and surrounding rural counties, Cox South (along with Mercy Springfield) handles the bulk of acute COVID-19 patients in their service area, which includes about a million people, according to Edwards.
“We work with our smaller hospitals - Branson, Monett and Lamar,” Edwards said, “to help them determine which COVID-19 patients should be transferred directly to Springfield for more intensive care.”
According to Edwards, only about 25 percent of current COVID-19 patients are from Greene County.
“The bulk of the cases, 70 to 75 percent, are coming in from rural counties, places where masks aren’t being worn as much,” Edwards said.
Valerie Davis, the administrator of Mercy Hospitals in both Cassville and Aurora, offered information which does nothing to dispel concerns.
“For Cassville, during the month of October, we saw a 30 percent increase in our inpatient volume,” she said. “Already, in November, we’ve admitted more patients to the hospital than we did the entire month of November last year. If that holds, we will see an increase of 112 percent in inpatient admissions for November compared to last year.
“On an average day,” she continued, “we have three to five COVID-19-positive patients, in addition to our non-COVID patients. Our co-workers, providers and leaders are working tirelessly to ensure we can care for every single patient in our community who needs us. Caring for COVID patients takes a toll on all health care workers, but it is especially difficult in a small community where a majority of the patients you are caring for are neighbors, friends and family. We ask that our community work alongside us to reduce the spread by wearing masks and practicing social distancing.”
Davis added that in the last two weeks, more than 400 people were tested for COVID-19 in Mercy’s clinic and hospital. Almost 40 percent of those tested were positive, more than double what they saw in the two weeks prior.
“Due to limited bed availability in our region and the state as a whole, we are caring for a majority of local COVID patients in our Cassville facility,” Davis said. “If our patients require ICU level care we work with the larger facilities to transfer the patient.”
CoxHealth CEO, Steve Edwards, said that with foreknowledge of the pending COVID-19 crisis imparted by medical professionals in the initially hard-hit areas of Seattle, Washington, and Madrid, Spain, Cox South designed and constructed a 51-bed COVID-19 unit in April as part of a larger 147-bed project. It sat unoccupied for two months. It’s now filled to capacity.
According to Edwards, not only is bed-capacity a concern, so, too, is finding the staffing for patient care.
“Our doctors are working heroically,” he said, “and we’re hiring travelling nurses who are proving to be very, very helpful to us since they have previous experience with treating COVID patients. We pay a premium price to hire them. They stay for a rotation, then move on. If someone offered us 300 skilled nurses today, we’d take them all.”
The 51-bed COVID ICU unit is an open unit, which allows for the easier oversight of patients, according to Edwards.
“We believe we can offer a better quality of care with this type of unit,” Edwards said. “Of the patients in the 51 beds, about three quarters of them are on ventilators. About half of them are past the point of being contagious, but are still in need of acute care.
“Nobody would want to be a patient in that unit, in part because of the noise factor,” Edwards continued, “but many of those who recover have no memory of the experience.”
Edwards said, so far, Cox has not had a single transmission of COVID-19 among staff who work in the unit.
“They see firsthand the negative effects of COVID-19, so they’re extremely conscientious about their personal protective habits,” he said.
“I have no doubt, though,” he continued, “when this is over, they will suffer from PTSD. Right now, they’re operating on adrenaline, but when this crisis is past, it can come back to haunt them.
“Our healthcare workers and others have spent the past eight months making personal sacrifices in the face of the pandemic,” Edwards said, “but the real risk is now. It’s here. We’re begging people to wear masks and not to gather for the holidays. If we don’t slow the spread of this virus, we won’t be able to help everyone who gets sick. We’re filling beds with COVID-19 patients that would normally be used for other types of patients.”
Edwards cited the example of a man who arrived at Texas County Memorial Hospital in Houston, Missouri, last week in need of emergency neurosurgery. The hospital spent the next 25 hours trying to find a bed for him in the surrounding six-state area. According to Edwards, a neuro-ICU bed was finally found in Iowa City, Iowa, where they saved his life with only minutes to spare.
Cox South currently works with Mercy Springfield to provide care for outlying areas.
“If one of us is full, we divert patients to the other facility, but that might not always be possible. Big cities might not always be able to come to the rescue in the face of this pandemic if the increase in numbers continues,” Edwards said. “I know I’m preaching, but we’re very concerned. Please, please help us slow the spread of the virus by wearing masks. They’ve been proven to help.”
