No longer ‘critical’: Wichita hospital status upgraded as COVID patient count drops

The coronavirus pandemic status is no longer “critical” at Wichita’s two major hospitals as the number of COVID-19 patients has dropped to its lowest level in three months.

The Sedgwick County Health Department on Monday changed its area hospital assessment status to “cautious.” It had previously been listed as “critical” since early November, when intensive care units became filled to capacity and hospitals were forced into contingency operations.

County officials have not defined either “critical” or “cautious,” so it is unclear exactly what led the status to be upgraded.

There has been significant improvement in hospitalization statistics since hitting record highs in November. However, intensive care units are still operating above the approximate capacity of 208 total ICU patients. The health department reports zero available ICU beds in the county’s public hospitals.

The health department reported that Wesley Healthcare and Ascension Via Christi were treating a combined total of 148 patients with COVID-19 as of Monday morning. That number is a drop of 45.8% from the peak of 273 on Nov. 30. With 46 of those patients occupying ICU beds, there has been a drop of 47.7% from the Nov. 16 peak of 88.

The Kansas Hospital Association reported on Tuesday that 19% of ICU beds were available in the south-central region, which is up from 15% available capacity last week. Still, Wichita’s region has the worst ICU availability in the entire state, and it remains in the red zone of the White House COVID-19 Task Force.

Kansas as a whole has 30% of its staffed, adult ICU beds available.

While most ICU beds are occupied by non-COVID patients, Wichita’s region remains in the White House’s red zone with 18% of its ICU beds occupied by COVID patients.

The number of COVID patients in the region’s ICUs dropped 26% in the last week, from 70 to 52. The number of total confirmed or suspected COVID patients that were hospitalized dropped 16%, from 248 to 209.