Another 32 ended with the requesting hospitals eventually finding space.įour COVID-19 patients in the St. Minnesota's cooperative C4 system received 195 requests in the seven-day period ending Tuesday to transfer patients and completed 17. Transfers between hospitals can relieve pressure on ERs, but nobody has openings. "It takes a great deal of our time and takes away from other patients," her nurse said. She had been waiting hours for an inpatient bed, which is typical, said her ER nurse, Carrie Zeigler-Erickson.īennett needed her diabetes monitored and help taking medications, eating and going to the bathroom - all commonplace on inpatient floors but not in ERs where nurses have higher patient volumes. Sylvia Bennett, 89, arrived in the ER after a nine-day bout with COVID-19 that left her dehydrated and with pneumonia.
Several patients were "boarders," meaning they needed inpatient care but no beds were available. Six of 38 patients tested positive for COVID-19, while five in the waiting area had confirmed or possible infections. The trickle-down effect was apparent Wednesday afternoon in the St.
Cloud averaged 74 adults with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 in inpatient beds at any point that week, ranking fourth for pandemic cases behind Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids, Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis and Mayo Clinic in Rochester. 5, it was one of four to report almost 100% occupancy along with CentraCare's Monticello hospital and HealthPartners' Regions Hospital in St. Cloud has averaged 99% occupancy of its 390 adult inpatient beds since July, according to federal hospital data, making it the busiest during that period in Minnesota. The 8,220 hospitalizations on Wednesday included 1,382 COVID-19 patients. Minnesota has tallied 55 days since May 2020 when hospitalizations exceeded 8,000, a benchmark for overcrowding - and 28 were in the last two months. CentraCare and other hospital systems have pushed back surgeries that can be delayed, but inpatient admissions are rising, possibly because people put off needed care earlier in the pandemic. "We're going to get some lab work, we'll get an ultrasound of this leg, we'll figure this out, OK?"Ī surge of COVID and non-COVID patients has differentiated the latest hospital crunch in Minnesota from earlier pandemic waves. Winter reviewed the man's medication and health history and told him to be patient. "Yeah, it burns," replied Bobby Stewart, 46. "It's hot does it feel hot to you?" Winter said. Winter's first ER patient Wednesday afternoon was a homeless man experiencing swelling on a leg marked with open sores and spider bites.
"No matter how big you build it, there are still more patients than you can take care of." Andrew Winter, an ER physician who zips from traumas to infections to mental health crises. "COVID just overwhelms the system," said Dr. Cloud or other hospitals in the CentraCare system this week. The pressure culminated last week with Minnesota's announcement that 22 federal emergency health care workers would shore up staffing in St. Minnesota's busiest hospital - by occupancy rate - has been at the epicenter of the state's COVID-19 wave for three months, treating an escalating number of infected patients while seeing no slowdown in everyday emergencies. Cloud Hospital's emergency room - only 11 people were in the waiting room at noon while 38 patients filled every available treatment bay. Wednesday was the slowest day of the week in St.