COVID-19 hospitalizations have doubled across the country in the last two weeks as the omicron variant leads to record surges in new coronavirus cases.
The increase in McLean County isn't quite as high, but Bloomington-Normal hospitals have been nearly full for months.
Last week, OSF HealthCare announced it was delaying some elective procedures as COVID-19 cases surge.
Lynn Fulton, president of OSF St. Joseph Medical Center, said the Bloomington hospital is more stressed for staff and space than it has ever been.
“If it’s not worse, it’s a close tie to the uptick we had last year,” Fulton said on WGLT's Sound Ideas.
According to data from the McLean County Health Department, OSF St. Joseph and Carle BroMenn Medical Center are treating 61 COVID patients and bed capacity is down to 3%. Fulton said COVID has strained hospitals more this year because it has combined with the flu and other common winter illnesses — unlike last winter when most illnesses were greatly reduced at the height of COVID shutdowns and other mitigations.
“This is a disease that did not exist two years ago, so when you add that to a flu season and to a regular year, that is going to stress the health care system,” she said.
Fulton said the severity of cases in light of the recent omicron surge still varies from patient to patient. She said even if omicron generally leads to less severe outcomes than other variants, the sheer volume of cases has led to more hospitalizations.
Fulton said OSF also has had to deal with staffing challenges due to employees testing positive for the coronavirus. She said OSF St. Joseph has never had to turn away a patient needing care, but it has had to delay transfer requests from other hospitals when it reached capacity.
Incidental COVID
Fulton said incidental cases of COVID-19 make up a small percentage of COVID patients at the Bloomington hospital, adding those COVID patients still require special treatment even if they were originally hospitalized for something else.
“Any patient with COVID or any infectious disease, it does take more resources because you put them in isolation and there is just a higher intensity anytime that occurs, but I wouldn’t say that small percentage is really putting a strain on the system. It really is just the overall number of patients with COVID-19.”
Booster shots
A vast majority of COVID-19 patients in Bloomington-Normal hospitals have not been vaccinated. That divide has been reduced somewhat in recent weeks by the highly-transmissible nature of the omicron variant.
Fulton said the data also show those who have not yet received a booster shot also are more susceptible to infection and illness.
“When you look at the hospitalizations across the OSF system, the majority are unvaccinated, or overdue for their booster,” she said.
According to the latest data from OSF, 61% of COVID patients are not vaccinated, and 24% are overdue for their booster shot. The more aggressive the care that’s required, the wider the discrepancy in vaccination status. As of Jan. 10, OSF HealthCare reported 9% of its COVID-19 patients are fully vaccinated and boosted and 10% of its COVID patients on ventilators have received the additional dose.
Optimism post-omicron
Fulton said she expects COVID will likely never go away entirely, but she sees reasons for optimism in the near future if the omicron variant begins to diminish in the coming weeks.
She noted Pfizer and Moderna both plan to have booster shots specifically for the omicron variant soon, and the FDA’s recent approval of two oral antiviral drugs, though their availability is still limited.
“All of that together gives us more tools in our toolbox that we didn’t have to COVID a year ago,” Fulton said. “As we look to spring and summer, I do feel very hopeful we will have an easier time.”
