Update: Sedgwick County had incorrect hospital data showing new low in ICU admissions

Update, 9:15 p.m. Wednesday

One day after this story was originally published, the Sedgwick County Health Department announced that one of its hospital numbers was inaccurate.

The county on Tuesday reported four COVID-19 patients in the intensive care units of Wichita’s public hospitals. On Wednesday, the county changed the number to 18. Local doctors say it is actually in the 30s.

The most recent counts of COVID-19 patients in the ICUs at Ascension Via Christi and Wesley Healthcare put the number at 34, two doctors confirmed Wednesday evening.

The ICU counts and other hospitalization information are reported weekly on the Sedgwick County Health Department’s COVID-19 dashboard. The numbers represent a single point in time of the capacity of the local public hospitals and are not cumulative counts.

The original report on the dashboard showed four COVID-19 patients in the ICUs as of Tuesday. That would have been the fewest ICU patients since the county started tracking the number June 29.

“There was a transcription error on our dashboard from the Monday call with local hospitals,” the county said in its Wednesday COVID-19 update news release. “The correct number is 18 COVID-19 patients in the ICU.”

Eighteen would be the fewest ICU patients with COVID-19 since July 13.

But the correct number is 34, Dr. Thomas Moore told The Eagle. Moore is an infectious disease specialist who has treated coronavirus disease patients.

Moore said Wednesday evening that the most recent count was 34 COVID-19 patients in the ICUs — 15 at Ascension and 19 at Wesley. There were 33 ICU patients with COVID-19 on Monday, with 15 at Ascension and 18 at Wesley.

“It appears to have been a clerical error somewhere,” he said. “Neither the infection prevention staff nor the people in administration with whom I spoke seem to know where the numbers went astray, but the number of COVID patients in the ICUs is most definitely not at low tide.”

Asked about that, the county spokesperson said Wednesday evening that “18 is the correct number.”

But critical care specialist Dr. Chloe Steinshouer also said that 34 is the correct current number, based on reports from administrators at both of the city’s hospital systems.

Steinshouer said she was the one who initially flagged the county that four was an incorrect number. She said the mistake was due to human error and was simply typed incorrectly. The revision to 18 ICU patients may have inadvertently included statistics from only one of the two hospitals.

“It is important for people to know it is an increase from a week ago,” she said.

Thirty-three ICU patients as of Monday is an increase of 14 from last week’s report from the Sedgwick County Health Department.

The county has reported the statistics since June 29, and the number of ICU admissions peaked at 35 on Aug. 24. The next three weeks had values of 23, 33 and 19.

Steinshouer added that many of the coronavirus disease patients are not residents of Sedgwick County and were transferred here from elsewhere. Oftentimes it is because they need more specialized care.

Almost all COVID-19 statistics on the county’s dashboard include only Sedgwick County residents. Hospital numbers are an exception, as they include everyone hospitalized in the county, regardless of where they are from.

Original story:

The number of coronavirus disease patients in the intensive care units of Wichita’s public hospitals is the lowest it has been since the county started tracking it.

The Sedgwick County Health Department reported four COVID-19 patients were in the ICUs at Wesley Healthcare and Ascension Via Christi hospitals on Tuesday. The county started tracking ICU information on June 29, when there were 15 COVID-19 patients in the hospital ICUs. The number peaked at 35 on Aug. 24.

There were 51 total COVID-19 patients in the city’s two major hospital systems on Tuesday. Fifty out of approximately 208 ICU beds were available, or about 24% below capacity. That is the most ICU beds available since the county started tracking.

The numbers represent a single point in time for current hospitalizations and are not cumulative. County public health officials report the hospital data once a week.

The four ICU patients on Tuesday was a drop of 15 from last week’s report. The 51 hospitalizations was an increase of seven.

The health department’s daily statistics showed 41 new cases of COVID-19 in the county and three more deaths. There have now been 8,107 cases, resulting in 85 deaths.

There were 569 more people tested, raising the total to 97,760. The positive test rate continues to hover around 5%. The latest rolling 14-day averages were 4.99% on Monday and Saturday, while the Sunday value was 5.16%. The percentage has stayed below 6% for more than a week.

No new clusters were reported, and two existing clusters are no longer active. Of 49 total clusters, 29 are closed. Two more deaths were attributed to the mass outbreaks, raising the tally to 52.

The 41 new cases were in these age groups:

• 0-9: one case;
• 10-17: two cases;
• 18-24: seven cases;
• 25-34: 10 cases;
• 35-44: 12 cases;
• 45-54: one case;
• 55-64: six cases;
• 65-74: one case;
• 75-84: one case;
• 85 and older: zero cases.

This story was originally published September 22, 2020 at 2:33 PM.