36 ICU beds available in the “stressed” Baton Rouge health region
Administrators say Baton Rouge hospitals running out of ICU nurses
By Matt Houston | July 17, 2020 at 6:03 PM CDT – Updated July 17 at 9:50 PM
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – Officials at two Baton Rouge hospitals say a recent spike in coronavirus hospitalizations has begun to “stress” the area health care system.
If the current trend continues, administrators at Our Lady of The Lake (OLOL) and Baton Rouge General (BRG) say their hospitals could run out of nurses who staff Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds.
“At the current pace, we don’t have enough ICU nurses to be able to staff as many patients as the surge is (requiring),” OLOL critical care Dr. Christopher Thomas said.
The Department of Health says 36 ICU beds are available in the Baton Rouge health region, as of July 17. There are currently 189 patients intensive care, though not all of them are being treated for COVID-19.
“The more and more critically-ill patients we get, both COVID and non-COVID, we just don’t have enough ICU nurses to handle the number of beds that we’re surging into,” BRG Chief Operating Officer Stephen Mumford said.
If you want outstanding care, you need a team that’s both rested and available. Our teams are available at current pace but they’re not rested because they’ve been working consistently for this community for over four months.
Dr. Christopher Thomas, Our Lady of The Lake
Hospitals can divert equipment from other wards to stand up makeshift intensive care units, but they have a harder time diverting nurses away from their regular work without affecting the quality of care outside the ICU.
Hospitals halted elective procedures during the first Coronavirus peak in April, allowing them to redirect resources to the intensive care units. Today, officials say they are straining to continue normal care and handle a surge.
“The challenge is not Corona. The challenge is normal critical illness in the Baton Rouge market, plus corona,” Thomas said. “If corona continues to accelerate, then that math added up gets to a point where we don’t have staff.”
Mumford says there are about as many COVID-positive patients in intensive care at BRG as there are non-coronavirus patients. Largely, he says, because sick people delayed major procedures during the first spike in April and are now opting to undergo treatment or are sicker because they waited.
“They didn’t want to get out in the community and come to the hospital or go see their doctor, or their surgery or procedure was delayed because we had such an influx of patients at the time,” Mumford said. “A lot of those patients have cancer or heart disease and need bypass surgery. If we continue to put those off, we’re putting their outcomes in jeopardy as well.”
The staffing problem is further complicated in the Baton Rouge region because rural facilities that are ill-prepared for a pandemic are sending their coronavirus patients to the capital city for better treatment.
“Those areas are seeing a big surge like we are now, so not only are we getting patients coming through our emergency room, we’re getting calls from several other health systems asking if we can take their patients as well,” Mumford said.
There are plenty of life-saving ventilators available, health department data shows. Hospital leaders say they’ve found more efficient ways to help sick patients breathe. But those new methods actually require more hands-on attention from an ICU nurse, Thomas said.
Ventilators have alert systems that notify hospital staff when a patient is having problems. Advanced oxygen systems are producing better results, but lack these special alarms.
“Instead of just everyone being on a ventilator, we’ve seen better outcomes. But we’ve also needed to enhance the staff available to provide safety and quality,” Thomas said, noting that nurses have to more closely monitor patients on advanced oxygen systems.
“The (Baton Rouge) numbers demonstrate stress,” Thomas said. “Not overload yet, but stress. Everyone has a role… please, help us. Wear your maks. Destress the system.”
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