Hospital bed capacity remains limited in Bloomington-Normal, even as the number of COVID-19 cases has dropped.In some cases, other patients have taken their place.
“The level of non-COVID admissions seen now suggests people delayed care in ways that were harmful to their long-term health,” said Laurie Round, chief nursing officer at Carle BroMenn and Carle Eureka hospitals.
Round said the pandemic prompted many people, especially older adults, to delay care for serious health concerns, including diabetes and heart disease, to avoid catching COVID.
“When you stop seeing your physician because you are frightened to come to the hospital, those things tend to not go away,” Round said. “They are always there and there’s things that need to be managed and they are not being managed well.
“So they get sicker quicker.”
Round said Carle hospitals also are treating more patients for elective surgeries, noting those hospital stays tend to be shorter, so bed capacity is more manageable.
OSF St. Joseph Medical Center in Bloomington had converted a transitional care unit to treat a surge in COVID patients, but it decommissioned those 12 extra beds this week as COVID cases stabilized following a surge in early January.
Chief Medical Officer Paul Pedersen said flu cases are also down this year, and that has helped.
“(That’s) partly due to the immunization processes that a lot of people underwent in the fall and partly due to the masking and physical distancing that people are doing."
“Who knew that washing hands would help, too?” he added with a hint of sarcasm.
But Pedersen said OSF has had to treat a surge in patients who suffered injuries related to the recent severe winter weather, or who just aren't able to get out of the cold.
“With the cold weather and slippery surfaces, there’s a lot of people falling and breaking things,” Pedersen said. “Unfortunately, that happens and we see them come into our emergency departments.”
According to the latest data from the McLean County Health Department, 94% of Bloomington-Normal hospital beds have someone in them and nearly three-fourths of intensive care beds are full.
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