Mount Nittany cancels all elective procedures through January due to surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations
Due to mounting COVID-19 hospitalizations, Mount Nittany Medical Center announced Wednesday afternoon that it is canceling all elective surgeries and procedures — including elective cardiac procedures — through January.
The announcement comes on the heels of Mount Nittany’s move on Dec. 15, when it rescheduled about half of elective surgeries (through Jan. 11) that required overnight stays. Currently, no changes have yet been made to the outpatient surgery center, although the hospital acknowledged further changes and reductions remain possible.
“We reached record numbers of COVID positive admissions this week, spiking at nearly 70 inpatients several times over the past few days. Today, nearly 40% of our total inpatients are COVID positive and it’s very possible that the numbers will continue to climb,” Dr. Nirmal Joshi, Mount Nittany Health’s chief medical officer, said in a written statement. “Our local trends continue to be alarming. It is important to be clear that the continued high number of COVID cases in the community means we cannot provide our normal range of services.
“We are doing everything that we can to preserve as many services as possible, but like every other hospital and health care system, there are limits.”
COVID-19 hospitalizations have surged every month since fall — from 16 in September, to 59 in October, 143 in November and 239 so far in December. And, in December, the trend has even continued on a week-to-week basis: There have been an average of 48 COVID positive inpatients per day this month but, over the last seven days, that number has jumped to 57.
Although state Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said last week that the commonwealth’s coronavirus cases have hit a “plateau,” and Gov. Tom Wolf announced Wednesday that mitigation efforts would be eased Jan. 4, that doesn’t mean hospitals are in the clear just yet. According to experts, hospitalizations typically lag several weeks behind cases and, based on the latest projections from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Pennsylvania’s hospitals will hit peak resource use around the second week in January.
Even then, it is not known how much the number of hospitalizations might grow at Mount Nittany before eventually decreasing.
“Daily monitoring will continue and it’s possible further reductions will be needed as we adjust and balance care for COVID hospitalized patients and those needing other types of medical care unless we see the cases go down,” Joshi added.
Relief, at least from the vaccine, isn’t yet in sight for the general public. Mount Nittany Health has given the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to more than 1,200 employees and medical staff. (The second dose is needed 21 days after the first.) And it received a second shipment, of the Moderna vaccine, on Tuesday — and continued to vaccinate its own employees while also reaching out to other community members such as such as health care workers from Centre Volunteers in Medicine, county emergency personnel, local physicians, dentists and school nurses.
But uncertainty remains for the public. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said earlier this month that most Americans should ideally have access to the vaccine by the spring. However, Bloomberg reported Tuesday night that the country is off to a slower vaccination start than anticipated.
Joshi reiterated that uncertainty at the local level again Wednesday.
“While we are hopeful of the promises of the vaccine and actively immunizing our employees, medical staff and a limited number of community health care workers, it is critical that the current level of community spread is reduced in order to preserve local access to critical health services,” he said.
“It is uncertain when vaccines will be available to the general public, so please remain vigilant by consistently wearing a mask, frequent hand washing and maintaining social distance. These measures are especially important during the New Year holiday as we continue to see an alarming rise in COVID cases and subsequent hospitalizations.”
Centre County has experienced 2,523 cases of the coronavirus so far this month. In November, the county had 2,115 cases.
On Wednesday, 60 COVID positive inpatients were at at the medical center between the ages of 29 to 100.
