‘The hospitals are full’: Idaho adds over 1,200 cases as health care system falters
Idaho added more than 1,200 coronavirus cases and 32 deaths on Tuesday, as major Treasure Valley health care providers begin shutting down clinics early and pausing elective surgeries in an attempt to weather a wave of COVID-19 patients.
Primary Health Medical Group, which has 21 clinics in the Treasure Valley, has so many residents visiting its clinics with COVID-19 symptoms that its clinics will begin closing an hour early, at 7 p.m., to ensure that every patient who is checked in can be seen.
“I’ve been in urgent care and primary care for 30 years, and it’s inconceivable to me we’re at a point where we can’t see all the patients who want to see us,” Dr. David Peterman, CEO of Primary Health, said in a news release. “Our health care workers are exhausted and working hard to see every patient and answer every call. But at some point, it’s just too much. This is a serious crisis.”
On Monday, Primary Health had more than 2,000 visits at its locations — a record — and the majority of visitors were “seeking evaluation and testing for COVID symptoms,” the release said.
“I am pleading with the public to wear your mask,” Peterman said. “Get your vaccine. If we can’t see you, you’ll have to go to the hospital, and the hospitals are full.”
Also on Tuesday, St. Luke’s Health System and Saint Alphonsus Health System paused certain elective surgeries at locations in the Treasure Valley amid an influx of COVID-19 patients, according to news releases from both hospitals.
Saint Al’s will pause “non-emergent surgeries and procedures” that require an overnight hospital stay at its Boise and Nampa hospitals. At St. Luke’s Treasure Valley and Elmore County locations, which had already paused elective surgeries requiring an overnight stay in mid-August, the hospital system will now also suspend outpatient procedures as well, including hernia repairs, hysterectomies and total joint replacements, according to a spokesperson, Joy Prudek.
At Saint Al’s locations in Boise and Nampa, more than 100% of staffed beds are full, with 20% of Boise patients and 35% of Nampa patients suffering from COVID-19, a release said.
“These are record volumes never seen during the entire 18-month pandemic,” the release added. The high number of COVID-19 patients is on top of a “record summer volume of trauma and medical emergencies, like heart attack, strokes, and cancer.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Gov. Brad Little said that there are only four staffed adult intensive care unit beds available in the entire state.
The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare announced Tuesday that hospitals and urgent care clinics can apply for funding to address the crisis.
Little has made $1,000 available per licensed hospital bed to address staff shortages and other issues, the news release said. The release did not specify how much funding would be available for hospitals. Funding totaling $1 million is available for urgent care clinics facing similar problems.
The announcements came on the same day that Little declared the state is “on the brink” of having to declare crisis standards of care for hospitals, a designation which helps hospitals make decisions about how to allocate resources when standard care is not available for all patients. The governor deployed the National Guard to help staff health care facilities, along with 200 contract workers from the federal government and a 20-person Department of Defense response team to be sent to North Idaho, where the health crisis is most severe.
There were 1,223 new COVID-19 cases reported statewide Tuesday — the most for a single day since January.
Of the day’s 32 deaths, one was an individual between 18 and 29 years of age, according to updated demographic data from Health and Welfare. One of the individuals was in their 30s, three were in their 40s, three were in their 50s, four were in their 60s, five were in their 70s, and 15 were over 80. To date, 2,363 Idahoans have died of COVID-19.
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 1,636 intensive care unit patients and 9,810 total hospitalizations.
Visit the “what we know” file at IdahoStatesman.com for a daily look at new cases by county and other key numbers.
This story was originally published August 31, 2021 at 7:57 PM with the headline "‘The hospitals are full’: Idaho adds over 1,200 cases as health care system falters."
