Mount Nittany announces new surge-planning measures as COVID-19 hospitalizations set another record
With local hospitalizations reaching another new high Tuesday, with 53 COVID-19 patients ranging in age from 19 to 95, Mount Nittany Medical Center announced it is taking another step in its surge planning measures.
According to the hospital, about half of elective surgeries that require overnight stays will be rescheduled through Jan. 11, and further reductions will be made as needed. Other services may also be adjusted in the future, “as the health system balances care for COVID hospitalized patients and those needing other care.”
Mount Nittany was already managing the number of elective surgeries, but Tuesday’s announcement further curbs such procedures.
“Health systems around the region and around the country are challenged by the increasing number of COVID-positive admissions,” Dr. Nirmal Joshi, chief medical officer, said in a written statement. “This surge is affecting everyone’s ability — including ours — to provide care to their communities. Until vaccines are widely available to the community, which will take some time, we urge the public to abide by advice they’ve been hearing about mitigation: wear masks, wash their hands, avoid gatherings, social distance and stay at home as much as possible.”
The county, commonwealth and country have all experienced a recent and serious uptick in coronavirus cases — and, at every level, medical officials are scrambling to meet demand. Locally, there were 16 hospitalizations in September, 59 in October, 143 in November — and about 100 already so far in December. The hospital first had to deal with 20 simultaneous COVID-19 patients in mid-November, with that number doubling to 40 by the month’s end.
Tom Charles, a Mount Nittany Health official, emphasized to the State College Borough Council on Monday night that such hospitalizations aren’t simply the cause of nursing homes.
“The message I want to get across is this is not ‘over there.’ It’s not ‘out there,’” said Charles, executive vice president of system development and chief strategy officer. “It’s among us. It’s present in the community. It’s not the nursing homes that are driving these hospitalizations. It’s not the prisons. It’s the general community population that has really been filling our beds.”
Statewide, according to the state Department of Health, 6,026 COVID-19 patients are hospitalized — double the peak in the spring — and 1,249 are in the ICU.
Based on the state’s early warning monitoring system, Centre County is experiencing a significant level of the coronavirus — but, based on testing positivity (12.9%) and weekly incidence rates (413.4 cases per 100K residents), the county still remains in better shape than most of the state.
When it comes to hospital data, however, Centre County isn’t as fortunate. The county is tied for 20th out of 67 counties with 2% of emergency department visits from Dec. 4 through Friday due to COVID-like illness.
“We’re now at a point in time where this is as challenging as it’s ever been for us,” Charles added.
This story was originally published December 15, 2020 at 1:57 PM.
