NEW ORLEANS — Hospitalizations from coronavirus continue to rise in Louisiana, and several hospitals around the state are reporting they are full.
But in New Orleans, hospitals say they are in good shape when it comes to capacity. They’re even taking in patients from other parts of the sate seeing more dramatic spikes.
“We’re not the hotspot that we were then. And the numbers seem to be fairly stable in that area. With ventilator usage staying fairly stable as well,” said Dr. Robert Hart, Chief Medical Officer at Ochsner Health.
Dr. Hart says Ochsner Health System’s numbers have leveled. Earlier this week, the system had about 230 hospitalized Covid-19 patients. At the peak of the first pandemic spike in April, Ochsner had roughly 880 in-patient cases of coronavirus.
LCMC Health echoes that, telling WWL-TV it has less than a quarter of patients than it did in April, and has enough PPE for staff to continue caring for patients as usual.
At Tulane Medical Center, a spokesperson says staff is “very busy” and they are “closely monitoring the situation.”
All three health systems, though, say they are not having staffing issues and are able to treat patients as normal. All three are also taking patients from other hospitals that are overwhelmed.
At a press conference with Gov. John Bel Edwards Thursday, doctors from regions experiencing a steep increase in hospitalizations.
“Our hospitals are full and our ICU is full,” said Dr. Amanda Logue, of Lafayette General Health. “We don’t have enough nurses to staff all of our beds right now.”
Hospitals in Region 4, Acadiana, are struggling to keep staff healthy and beds empty.
State data shows only 40 ICU beds open in the entire Lake Charles and Lafayette regions.
“I anticipated that we would have a second wave. But I didn’t think the wave was going to come this soon. I thought this wave was going to hit us in the fall. I thought we’d have more time to prepare, and I thought we’d be in a better place. And unfortunately, we’re not,” said Dr. Henry Kaufman of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Medical Center.
In Baton Rouge, Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center has joined a list of hospitals pausing non-emergency surgeries.
“We're not going to run out of beds for you, but we're going to run out of the best care we can offer you and we don't want to do that,” said Dr. Katherine O’Neal.
Even though the vitals are stable in New Orleans, Dr. Hart reminds residents to wear a mask and not get complacent.
“This is not something where we can be comfortable here. We know that it is going on. We know that people go back and forth, all around our state,” said Dr. Hart. “So the virus is still out there. It will spread if given the opportunity to spread more.”
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