GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — It’s not just the rate of infection that’s going up in the state of Wisconsin. More concerning, doctors say, is the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19.
A quick look at the charts on the Wisconsin Hospital Association’s website makes it very clear hospitals in the Fox Valley and Northeast regions are seeing more COVID-19 patients than ever before.
“It’s put more pressure on our nurses and nursing staff,” said Ken Nelson, Chief Nursing Officer for HSHS St. Vincent & St. Mary’s hospitals. “It’s put more stress on our teams. They are working really hard. It’s been tough.”
Before September, the most COVID patients the Fox Valley region’s 13 hospitals dealt with at one time was 25. That happened at the end of May. Right now, they have 83 patients, about 3.5 times more than the beginning of September.
Before this month, the Northeast region’s patient high was 57 at the end of April. That is the same time area meat packing plants had outbreaks. The region’s 10 hospitals now have 81 patients, almost triple the number from Sept. 1.
“We’re very close to being at a number of patients where it’s becoming too much for our community,” said Brad Burmeister, an emergency room doctor for Bellin Health.
“The numbers we have seen in recent days in hospitalizations are concerning. It emphasizes why it’s important for us to act now. It’s important for all of us to make choices now,” DHS Secretary Designee Andrea Palm said.
Palm added that the hospitalizations are even more concerning as flu season approaches — because hospitals may become overburdened.
“Our frontline healthcare workers and our hospital systems are going to not only have to treat what they see on a regular basis, plus COVID. They now are faced with a flu season which does always result in hospitalizations and death. That’s just something we know happens every year,” Palm said.
The hospital association shows ventilators are widely available in both regions. 88% aren’t being used in the Northeast, and 85% in the Fox Valley.
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