A week after Mount Nittany Medical Center took the extraordinary step of temporarily diverting ambulances from its emergency department, Centre County’s only hospital continues to be “severely impacted” by the local surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
The “rippling effects” of increasing COVID-19 transmission in the community have resulted in a “sharply increasing demand for services,” and average daily COVID-positive inpatient census is at its highest level of the entire pandemic, medical center officials said on Friday.
Mount Nittany Health administrators are meeting several times a day to make real-time adjustment to operations and reallocate staff and resources in order to meet the high volume of patients coming into the emergency department.
The measures have helped to ease some of the stress the hospital experienced a week ago, “but intensive care physicians and staff are experiencing no relief,” Dr. Upendra Thaker, the hospital’s chief medical officer, said in a statement.
Community members who go to the emergency department should expect much longer wait times than usual, sometimes hours. Many individuals in the waiting for care at the emergency department have COVID-19 and residents who are able to should consider using the medical center’s virtual ER to reduce time spent in the waiting area, according to Mount Nittany Health.
As result of the COVID-19 impacts, Mount Nittany is postponing through at least Dec. 20 all elective surgeries requiring an overnight inpatient stay.
Beginning Saturday, visitations will be modified to allow one designated visitor per patient between 2-6 p.m. daily.
“Our region’s health systems are being severely impacted by the surge of COVID-19 as a result of the transmission that is happening in our communities,” Thaker said. “We want everyone to know this kind of pressure on healthcare services severely impacts access to much needed medical services. This situation will not begin to improve until community transmission of the virus falls. We are doing everything we can do. We continue to ask that everyone who is eligible get vaccinated, avoid large indoor gatherings, social distance and hand wash.”
Mount Nittany had 65 COVID-positive inpatients ranging in age from 21 to 95 on Friday, with eight in intensive care and on ventilators. Eighteen are fully vaccinated and 47 are not vaccinated.
Through the first 10 days of December, the medical center has had an average daily census of 57 COVID inpatients, the highest average throughout the 21 months of the pandemic. Overall patient volumes at the 260-bed hospital also are at record levels, according to Mount Nittany Health.
The increasing hospitalizations and emergency department demand come as daily new cases in Centre County and across Pennsylvania continue to remain high. The county recorded 98 new cases on Friday, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, and has had 820 so far this month. December’s 10-day total is 15 more than the county had for the entire summer, when 805 cases were reported between June 1 and Aug. 31.
Statewide, Pennsylvania registered its fifth highest single-day increase in new cases on Friday with 11,628. The 4,502 COVID hospitalizations across the commonwealth are the most since Jan. 21.
Geisinger Health System reported this week that its nine hospitals in central and northeastern Pennsylvania were at 110% capacity and emergency department patients were sometimes waiting for 10 to 20 hours.
Tiffany Cabibbo, Mount Nittany’s chief nursing officer and vice president for patient care services, praised the work of the hospital’s staff and with Thaker urged community members to get vaccinated.
“I applaud our staff for their hard work during this difficult time and for their commitment to providing the best care possible for our patients,” Cabibbo said. “Their efforts are heroic. We ask for continued support from the community as we continue to meet these unprecedented challenges.”
