Wichita hospitals move to critical condition; official considers county mask mandate
If you are from Pittsburg, Arkansas City or any part of Kansas outside of the Wichita area you are less likely to find a hospital bed here than in the past, Sedgwick County manager Tom Stolz said Wednesday.
Stolz said he’s hearing more incidents of Kansans having to be sent out-of-state to find a bed. It’s also less likely now that people in Sedgwick County will have a bed at one of the Wichita hospitals, according to Wesley Medical Center spokesperson Dave Stewart.
COVID-19 patients are filling up more and more beds in Sedgwick County in recent weeks, health officials said.
Stewart, who is out of the office this week with COVID-19, said in a phone interview that 97% of their COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated.
An Ascension Via Christi spokesperson said the uptick affects ambulance transfers, not walk-ins.
The Wichita hospital status was changed from yellow to red (critical) Wednesday at the advice of hospital officials. There were 147 COVID-19 patients, with 56 in the intensive care unit, in Wichita hospitals when health officials updated the Sedgwick County COVID-19 dashboard Monday.
That climbed to 182 in the hospitals and 61 in the ICU on Wednesday, Stolz said. The hospital numbers have been trending up since July, the dashboard shows, but remain far from a peak of 273 COVID-19 patients and 88 in the ICU, which both occurred during different weeks in November.
Daily COVID-19 deaths in Kansas peaked on Dec. 22 with 62, but have been mostly trending up since July, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
The daily deaths broke the double-digit mark for the first time since February on July 29 and has done so several times in August.
Stolz said he relayed to Sedgwick County health officer Dr. Garold Minns about the drastic two-day increase in Wichita hospitals. Minns is considering proposing that masks be worn again and should reach a decision before the end of the week, he said.
The Sedgwick County Commission will have the final say on any mask mandate.
Much of the new spike is driven by the delta variant. It’s led to younger and sicker patients staying at the hospital for longer, Wesley Medical Center Chief Medical Officer Dr. Lowell Ebersole said during a Friday meeting with regional hospital staff.
Some of the alarming trends Wesley has seen include about 50% of its COVID patients needing an ICU bed and deaths among the 34-55 age group, where 30% of their deaths are occurring. Additionally, within the 34-55 age group, about 3 out of every 10 patients with COVID are dying, Ebersole said.
Ascension Via Christi Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sam Antonios also said during the Friday meeting that they’ve seen nearly as many pediatric patients in the last 45 days as the previous 15 months.
Antonios said in an emailed statement Wednesday that Ascension has 74 COVID patients and hundreds of others for other conditions.
Ascension is considering changing its visitor police to slow the spread; last week Wesley changed its visitor policy to one person per patient with some exceptions.
Health officials say the uptick in non-COVID patients is due to people holding off on elective surgeries and medical care last year during the previous peak of the pandemic.
“We continue to admit and discharge patients all day, every day, along with caring for patients in our ERs,” Antonios said. “However, for every patient we move out of a hospital room or ICU bed, another patient is waiting to be moved in . . . We soon will be heading into a time of year where all types of respiratory illnesses and hospitalizations are on the increase. Our staff is tired and need your support to turn this around.”
On Wednesday, the KDHE reported 3,006 new COVID cases, 62 more deaths and 98 hospitalizations since Monday. Kansas has a total of 353,390 cases, 12,311 hospitalizations and 5,456 deaths.
This story was originally published August 18, 2021 at 6:57 PM.