Hospitals in Alachua County are not seeing any significant changes in COVID

Local hospitals on Monday reported no significant changes to COVID-19 patients and guidelines since last week.

At the North Florida Regional Medical Center, the total number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has decreased nearly 13% in the past seven days, according to a prepared statement from Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sean Benoit, emailed to The Sun.

An exact number of patients for the day was not given and has not been available for a week. According to data from Alachua County’s COVID-19 dashboard, only 7% of COVID-19 patients were vaccinated by NFRMC as of Monday.

“We are encouraged by this recent reduction in COVID-19 hospital admissions and hope this trend continues,” the statement said. “We know this was one of the toughest periods of the pandemic, with more hospital admissions than before, but our caregivers made the difference and faced the challenge when they were most needed.”

Before:Hospital stays in the COVID district are on the decline; UF Health hits record high pediatric

And:Alachua County Commission approves vaccination incentives and expands mask requirements

According to CEO Ed Jimenez, patient numbers at the University of Florida Health Shands COVID-19 hospital do not appear to be flattening or decreasing, but rather hovering around and a little over 200.

In a media update on Monday afternoon, the executive said the hospital had 217 COVID-19 patients after hitting a low of 199 on Saturday. Of the total on Monday, 60 were in intensive care, 14 were children and only 10% were fully vaccinated.

Statistically, those numbers aren’t a significant change from the hospital’s last update Thursday, which had 215 COVID-19 patients, 59 in intensive care and 16 children.

“For us the numbers have been in a tight corridor for the last week or so,” said Jimenez. “Believe me, I would love them to go down, but they aren’t yet.”

Both UF Health and North Florida Regional Medical Center’s COVID-19 patient numbers declined slightly last week, hospitals reported, but in Shands it wasn’t enough to determine a trend or whether the patient burden was theirs for the current pandemic The boom had peaked, he said.

As for the operations of UF Healths, Jimenez said things haven’t changed. COVID-19 patients need more care and more nurses, but the hospital “can’t get nurses out of thin air,” he said.

Employees will continue to be asked to work overtime and extra shifts or move from their regular stations to COVID-19 units. The hospital is also hiring agencies to provide contract nurses, he said. And some electoral processes are still being postponed.

In terms of space and equipment, Jimenez said, UF Health has no shortage of morgue between designated morgue for its nearly 1,200 beds and additional space for forensic pathology.

The hospital also has 12 extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, machines, he said. More patients are using ECMO every day than the hospital can accommodate, and purchasing more equipment will not solve the problem.

Operating 10 of the 12 is convenient with the staffing, Jimenez said, although the hospital can reach out to serve all of them. The exposure really depends on the availability of intensive care beds, as well as nurses and doctors operating the machines and monitoring patients, he explained.

The CEO reiterated the importance of getting the COVID-19 vaccine, advocating Alachua County’s decision to incentivize vaccines for residents and government workers with gift cards, payments per dose and a reduction in insurance costs .

“We need to increase vaccination rates,” said Jimenez. “The more people are vaccinated, the better we are.”

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