FOX VALLEY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – It’s been nearly two weeks since Thanksgiving when, against CDC guidance, many people still traveled and gathered with friends and family. Health experts have warned about “a surge upon a surge” happening around this time, as a result of that defiance.
A surge, however, may be the tipping point for hospitals and even ambulances.
Bellin Health Dr. Brad Burmeister tells FOX 11 there’s no question, COVID-19 has had a major impact on our healthcare system.
“Our entire fourth floor, which is typically our medical floor, which takes care of all people with different medical issues, is still our COVID unit, and it’s very close to full.”
And now, ambulances in some states across the country are seeing a delay in response times.
Ambulances can’t just leave patients in the ER, without the hospital first accepting that patient, so if a surge does happen and hospitals fill to capacity, that could mean longer wait times for ambulances, or the hospital may be forced to transfer that patient elsewhere.
“We’re gonna have to get really creative with how we manage these transfers, how we work with other local ambulance providers to move patients,” Nick Romenesko, systems director for Gold Cross Ambulance Service said. “It’s just gonna be an all-hands-on-deck effort to move these patients, if we see a second surge.”
Currently, wait times for ambulances in Northeast Wisconsin aren’t nearly as long as in other areas, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been running into other issues already.
Romenesko tells FOX 11 911 calls have remained pretty steady, but it’s the amount of interfacility transfers that have increased significantly.
“The amount of patients that the hospitals were seeing with the COVID surge, they really had to get creative moving these patients. We really saw, in October and November, about a 30% increase in that type of work, which is really atypical for us this time of year.”
An ambulance used to transfer a patient if a hospital is too full, means one less ambulance out on the road. That problem could be magnified with a surge.
“We could call on our neighboring fire departments and have ambulance services to use our mutual aid system that we have set up statewide to help us,” Fond du Lac Fire/Rescue chief Peter O’Leary said. “The fear we have of that is this, is that those other agencies could be afflicted with the same type of surge that we are.”
The Wisconsin Hospital Association shows there are currently more than 1,500 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Wisconsin.
Of the roughly 11, 000 hospital beds in the state, just shy of 1,900 are available.
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