NEW ORLEANS — With COVID-19 hospitalizations rising in Louisiana, state and health leaders are concerned about what may happen.
“We are very much on a trajectory right now of increased positivity, of increased activity, increased cases, increased hospitalizations that threaten our ability to deliver lifesaving care in our hospitals,” said Governor John Bel Edwards.
Edwards says we’re not there yet, but in some areas, that threat is closer than in others. According to numbers from the state department of health, as of Thursday, there are only 15 available ICU beds in the seven parishes that make up Region Three. There’s a total of 81 beds. Those parishes include Assumption, Lafourche, St. Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Mary and Terrebonne.
Low availability creates a challenge for St. James Parish Hospital.
“All of the referral centers are heavily inundated with COVID patients. Their critical care beds are very, very tight,” said hospital CEO Mary Ellen Pratt.
Pratt says COVID patients make up 40 to 50 percent of the patient population at St. James right now. As a small rural hospital, St. James isn’t licensed for an ICU and relies on transfers to larger hospitals for critical care.
“As a result, we’ve had to hold patients for longer than what we typically do. We’ve had to intubate and put patients on ventilators and manage those ventilators for a period of time until we can get a bed available to us at our referral centers,” said Pratt.
The vaccine effort is also centered at the hospital because no pharmacies in the parish have it. Pratt says there’s no freezer storage at the hospital, so doses must be given quickly. With a request for more doses from the state, Pratt say the hospital is working with parish government to set up a large vaccination effort for the 70 and older population.
“We’re going to have to ramp up to be able to administer more than what we’re doing now in terms of the number per day and the number of staff that we have allocated to it,” said Pratt. “We are committed to doing it.”
Even with logistical challenges, Pratt says the hospital continues to navigate through unprecedented care.
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