(Harborview Medical Center, Seattle – courtesy of UW Medicine)
Hospitals are at level of stress unprecedented in the pandemic, says Sommer Kleweno-Walley, CEO at Harborview Medical Center, but she says it’s not primarily due to COVID. Kleweno-Walley says, “This is because of a very large impact of long length-of stay patients.” Kleweno-Walley says Harborview is at 130% of capacity.
Others say they are equally or nearly as full and that they have gone back to caring for patients in hallways and conference rooms. That’s not as easy as rolling beds into those areas and putting people in them. Hospital rooms, ERs and ICU rooms are set up with things like oxygen and suction tied directly into central systems with outlets on the walls, vital sign and other monitoring equipment and even those orange power outlets tied to generators for continuous operations during a power outage.
Washington State Hospital Association members say the hang-up is in the state’s unique requirement of a court-appointed guardian to make the official decision to move those patients to long-term care even though family members can provide other consent, says Providence Swedish Chief Nursing Officer, Kristy Carrington. They can consent “to surgeries for their loved ones, or do-not-resuscitate orders,” Carrington says, “but we don’t allow them to make decisions on behalf of their loved one to transfer them to a long-term care home or to other skilled nursing facilities.” So they’re calling on the state to look at other states’ interpretations of the guardianship rule so they can move these patients out and unblock much-needed beds.
The State Department of Health sent Northwest Newsradio the following statement:
“DOH recognizes the challenges hospitals face when it comes to hospital capacity. The agency continues to support DSHS, HCA and our other healthcare partners as well as working with the Washington Medical Coordination Center to move patients across the system to receive the care they need.”
“It’s important for people to do everything they can to avoid becoming a patient, such as taking care of your chronic conditions and visiting your primary care provider or an urgent care clinic if you need non-emergency medical attention.”
The DOH also sent us a link to its website on hospital surge.
