Idaho health care leaders call for mask mandates to slow COVID-19 wave
Saint Alphonsus and St. Luke’s, West Valley Medical Center, Primary Health and Saltzer — the largest health care providers in the Boise area — joined together on Tuesday to call for mask mandates to help stop Idaho’s rapid rise in COVID-19 cases.
They asked Idahoans to be more vigilant in wearing masks, social distancing, washing hands and following other recommendations to reduce spread of the coronavirus. They also asked the public to contact government and public health leaders to ask them to implement a mask requirement.
The hospitals and clinics said they’re currently able to treat all patients, but they fear that won’t be the case if the trend isn’t reversed.
Their plea came a day after a St. Luke’s health care provider in her 40s died from complications of COVID-19. Samantha Hickey was a pediatric nurse practitioner who worked in Caldwell but had worked for years with St. Luke’s and Saint Alphonsus health systems.
The call for urgent action comes as admissions to local hospitals are spiking.
St. Luke’s and Saint Alphonsus alone had a combined 118 people hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Tuesday morning — compared with 22 such patients less than a month ago.
St. Luke’s CEO Chris Roth said the state’s seven regional public health districts, which operate independently, are “all doing different things, they’re not coordinated, they’re not consistent, and we have a patchwork quilt of solutions as a result.”
He praised Gov. Brad Little for wearing a mask in public. “However, we would like to see more state action as it relates to mandates, that leads to coordinated response with all the public health districts,” he said.
The hospital systems also have a growing number of employees on quarantine or isolation because of how pervasive the virus is in the Treasure Valley.
Saint Alphonsus a month ago had 25 employees out for reasons related to COVID-19, said CEO Odette Bolano. “Today, we sit at 123, and we don’t have other colleagues to bring in that know our system, that know our workflows ...”
Saint Alphonsus Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Steven Nemerson warned that if current trends continue unabated, half of its hospital capacity will be consumed by Labor Day with COVID-19 patients.
Meanwhile, clinics operated by Primary Health Medical Group and Saltzer Health have a growing number of patients with coronavirus symptoms who need testing and treatment.
Primary Health CEO Dr. David Peterman said the practice’s clinics have 40 to 55 people testing positive each day, compared with an earlier peak months ago of 10 to 15 a day. And it’s not just because they are running more tests, he said. The percent of tests that come back positive is now as high as 15%, compared with about 1% to 4% prior to June 14, he said.
The practice has concerns about its staffing, too, as more employees contract the virus. “We had to close a clinic this weekend because we didn’t have enough staff,” he said.
While a total statewide shelter-in-place order was necessary to slow the severe outbreak in Blaine County earlier in the pandemic, the health care leaders said they don’t want to see something like that again. People delayed medical care during the shutdown and now have larger health problems, they said.
The shutdown “was a blunt force instrument,” said St. Luke’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jim Souza. “We don’t want to see that used again because of the other negative effects. .... These more precise interventions around masking and distancing and avoiding congregating indoors, they work.”
There is no statewide mask mandate in Idaho. Some cities, including Boise, have mandated face coverings in public places where social distancing of 6 feet isn’t possible.
More than 20 states have some variation of an order mandating face coverings in public, including three that border Idaho: Nevada, Oregon and Washington.
“Now is the time for us to make a difference,” said West Valley Medical Center CEO Betsy Hunsicker. “A culture of masking will allow us to keep our economy going while minimizing the spread of infection.”
This story was originally published July 14, 2020 at 10:37 AM.
