Hospitals struggle as death toll rises

While hospitals across the region continue to struggle with the number of COVID-19 patients needing medical attention, the first local deaths in many months have now officially been reported by the state. Meanwhile, after several weeks of verging on crisis mode, the situation has been a little calmer inside Crook County Memorial Hospital over the last week, says CEO Micki Lyons.

“We still have positive inpatients in the hospital and continue to have difficulty getting patients out to a higher level of care,” she says.

The staff has been able to keep the ship steady throughout the recent outbreak, she says. 

“We have managed to avoid a rapid spread on infection amongst the employees so far and have been able to maintain fairly consistent staffing,” she says.

“The county positivity rate continues to climb, so we continue to be diligent about wearing PPE, handwashing and limiting visitation.”

Until that county positivity comes down, Lyons says, the building will remain closed to visitation. The long-term care unit remains stable, while the clinics are also still open and testing is still available.

On Monday, Wyoming Department of Health figures showed that two people were hospitalized with COVID-19 at the county facility.

Hospital Overload

Crook County’s hospital experiencing high patient intake may not seem like an insurmountable issue considering the abundance of larger facilities in the surrounding area, but the hospital in Sundance is not alone in nearing crisis point.

Campbell County Health is among those hospitals in Wyoming to which members of the National Guard have been deployed. The facility has been treating up to 20 infected patients at a time over the last few weeks according to statistics provided to the WDH, with 19 hospitalized COVID-19 patients reported on Monday, while all adult ICU beds have been in use since at least August 25.

Billings Clinic meanwhile announced last week that the immense strain from COVID-19 patients meant it would be preparing to implement Crisis Standards of Care.

“To be clear, this doesn’t mean that we have implemented them. But we have to be proactive and must be ready to put them into place quickly if the need arises,” stated the announcement. “With the extremely high number of hospitalizations and new COVID-19 cases stretching staff and resources incredibly thin, being able to make most fair, equitable decisions that help the most people is incredibly important.”

The standards provide guidance on how to allocate limited medical supplies, space and staff if these resources become scarce. Hospitals enter a state of crisis care when it is no longer possible to deliver the normal standard of care to all persons in need due to a facility being overwhelmed.

“Billings Clinic is already using contingency standards, which are different from normal processes, but able to achieve sufficiency of care, and is moving toward Crisis Standards of Care,” states the announcement. “We anticipate that crisis care will occur in our region and use of this guidance will be necessary.”

Monument Health meanwhile reported 66 hospitalizations across its system on September 22, only 11 of whom were vaccinated. The organization oversees hospitals in Rapid City, Sturgis, Spearfish, Custer and Deadwood.

Of those patients, 18 were in a serious enough condition to be in the ICU, of which all but four were unvaccinated. Of the 13 patients on ventilators at that time, 11 were unvaccinated.

Death Toll

Over the last two weeks, three members of the community have been added to the tally of Crook County’s lost.

On September 14, the Wyoming Department of Health reported that an older adult man from Crook County had died in August after being hospitalized.

On September 21, two deaths from Crook County were announced. One was an adult man who was hospitalized in another state and the other was an older adult man who was also known to have prior health conditions.

All three men were known to have prior health conditions that put them at greater risk of serious illness.

This brings the total number of Crook County residents lost to the virus over the course of the pandemic to 16.

The news comes at a time when Crook County is seeing a significant number of new recorded cases. The percent of tests that come back positive remains high in Wyoming at over 9%, suggesting there are many cases going undocumented.

Over the last two weeks, Crook County has recorded a total of 71 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, as well as 27 new probable cases. On September 27, this saw the county reach overall totals of 635 confirmed and 120 probable infections.

State Deaths

A total of 76 deaths in this state have been confirmed by the Wyoming Department of Health (WDH) over the last two-week period. The overall number of deaths due to COVID-19 in Wyoming sits at 955.

The 39 deaths in the September 14 announcement included six in Natrona County; five in Uinta County; three each in Campbell, Converse, Fremont and Sheridan Counties; two each in Albany, Goshen, Hot Springs, Laramie, Platte and Sweetwater counties; and one each in Niobrara, Park and Weston counties.

Of those deaths, all but 12 were listed as older adults. Fifteen were not known to have health conditions that would put them at higher risk of serious illness.

Another 37 deaths were announced on September 21. As well as the two from Crook County, these included ten in Sweetwater County, five in Laramie County, four in Fremont County, two each in Carbon, Natrona and Uinta counties and one each in Albany, Converse, Goshen, Hot Springs, Lincoln, Park, Sheridan, Sublette, Teton and Weston counties.

The proportion of younger adults who are now succumbing to the virus has grown since earlier in the pandemic. All 37 deaths in the September 21 announcement were among the adult population, but only 16 were among older people and only one death involved a resident of a long-term care facility.

The proportion of fatalities among people who were not previously known to have health conditions that would place them at risk has also risen, accounting for 14 of the 37 people who died.

National Guard

Aside from Campbell County, other counties in Wyoming whose medical facilities will be receiving assistance from the National Guard include Cheyenne, Casper, Gillette, Rock Springs, Laramie, Jackson, Evanston, Sheridan, Buffalo, Powell, Lovell, Cody, Newcastle, Douglas, Wheatland and Thermopolis, according to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.

Governor Mark Gordon activated around 95 guardsmen on September 21 to provide temporary assistance, easing the workloads imposed by the large numbers of COVID-19 hospitalizations.

“The Delta variant has overwhelmed the medical institutions of states across this country. Our state is no different with most hospitals at or near capacity,” said Col. David Pritchett, director of the joint staff for the Wyoming National Guard.

“The Soldiers and Airmen of the Wyoming National Guard are proud to jump back in to provide much needed assistance to our communities as we continue to battle the effects of COVID-19.”

Guard members are currently assisting with environmental clean-up, food and nutrition service, COVID-19 screening, managing personal protective equipment supplies and other support tasks. Some will be trained to administer COVID-19 tests.

The orders will be 14-30 day rotations, with the potential to extend beyond that, until December 31.