Coronavirus: Treasure Valley hospitals pause some surgeries, a result of COVID-19 crisis
Treasure Valley hospitals are moving forward with some of their surge plans and pausing some elective surgeries, as Idaho battles a rise in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
St. Luke’s Health System announced Thursday that it will temporarily stop scheduling certain elective surgeries and procedures due to an increasing number of coronavirus patients in Idaho.
The pause in elective surgeries will begin on Monday, Nov. 16, and will be in place until Friday, Dec. 25, according to a news release from St. Luke’s. The delay will affect surgeries that can be delayed 90 days or more without negative consequences and require an overnight stay in the hospital.
This pause does not have an impact on elective outpatient surgeries or procedures that do not require an overnight stay in the hospital.
St. Luke’s medical centers in Boise, Meridian, Magic Valley and Nampa will also cancel all elective procedures that were already scheduled for the week of Nov. 16 requiring an overnight stay, as long as it can be delayed 90 days. Impacted patients will be contacted directly to be notified, and St. Luke’s spokesperson Anita Kissee said the cancellations will total about 180.
St. Luke’s hospitals in McCall, Wood River and Mountain Home will not cancel any currently scheduled surgeries.
The pause on pediatric admissions at St. Luke’s Magic Valley will also continue, as all pediatric patients that need to be admitted will be sent to other hospitals. However, patients age 14 or older who are non-COVID-19 patients may be admitted to an adult bed at the Twin Falls hospital; and newborns less than one month old and non-COVID-19 may be admitted to the hospital’s NICU.
For 12-hour periods on the weekends of Oct. 31 and Nov. 7, the Twin Falls hospital was forced to send its patients to other hospitals, as it didn’t have room for those in need of care because of the high number of coronavirus patients.
Saint Alphonsus Health System has begun to “selectively limit surgical procedures that may be delayed without creating a risk to patients,” but only at its Idaho hospitals, according to spokesperson Mark Snider.
The Boise hospital’s leadership is watching daily inpatient capacity and weekly surgery schedules, updating operating room schedules each week, Snider said.
“Emergent procedures and outpatient surgeries will continue,” he said.
The Nampa hospital’s ability to do non-emergency surgeries that require an inpatient hospital stay “will be assessed on a daily basis, with a daily review of inpatient bed capacity and staffing,” he said.
The health system’s hospitals in Ontario and Baker City, Oregon, are not affected by the changes.
Idaho adds 1,250 confirmed coronavirus cases, 18 deaths
Idaho continues on its upward trend in new coronavirus cases with little signs of slowing down.
Health officials around the state added 1,618 total cases — 1,250 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 368 new probable cases — on Wednesday, smashing Idaho’s previous highs in both categories. The previous high for confirmed cases was 1,207, set on Monday, and the high for overall cases was 1,417, set on Nov. 6.
In addition to the staggering number of new cases, the state also reported 18 coronavirus-related deaths, tying a daily record. Eastern Idaho Public Health reported a death in Bonneville County was a man in his 80s, and a death in Lemhi County was a woman in her 70s. No other information regarding the deaths was available as of Wednesday evening.
To date, 738 Idahoans have died because of the coronavirus, with a fatality rate around 0.95%.
For the sixth straight day, Idaho’s seven-day moving average for new cases has been higher than 1,000 cases per day, reaching a record high of 1,249 on Wednesday.
In observance of Veterans Day, three Idaho health districts — Idaho North Central District, Southwest District Health and South Central Public Health District — did not update their websites, so the Idaho Statesman used case counts from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.
Ada County reported a record high of 391 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Wednesday, as well as 95 new probable cases. The county now has 17,737 total confirmed cases. Three other counties also saw their totals increase by triple digits: Twin Falls (123 new), Kootenai (118) and Bonneville (105).
Health and Welfare reported that 417,446 people have been tested for the coronavirus, with about 15.9% of those tests returning positive.
All of Idaho’s 44 counties have confirmed cases of the coronavirus: Ada 17,737, Adams 71, Bannock 2,160, Bear Lake 107, Benewah 209, Bingham 1,450, Blaine 973, Boise 87, Bonner 578, Bonneville 4,420, Boundary 121, Butte 97, Camas 39, Canyon 10,739, Caribou 252, Cassia 1,593, Clark 37, Clearwater 187, Custer 101, Elmore 504, Franklin 370, Fremont 528, Gem 451, Gooding 587, Idaho 462, Jefferson 948, Jerome 1,289, Kootenai 5,062, Latah 1,151, Lemhi 331, Lewis 114, Lincoln 246, Madison 2,803, Minidoka 1,322, Nez Perce 1,324, Oneida 80, Owyhee 412, Payette 1,107, Power 336, Shoshone 351, Teton 349, Twin Falls 4,641, Valley 152, Washington 487.
Statesman reporter Audrey Dutton contributed.
This story was originally published November 12, 2020 at 3:53 PM.
