Pennsylvania hospitals are asking the state for an infusion of resources and other help to deal with a potential surge of patients in need of testing and hospital care because of the coronavirus.
As an example of the growing strain, they described a hospital in southeast Pennsylvania that’s caring for three coronavirus patients in intensive care with no additional ICU capacity.
Pointing to possible future shortages, they said the southeast region of the state has a total of 150 breathing ventilators — about three per hospital.
The hospitals also cited “urgent needs for scarce personal protective equipment” including face masks and swabs used for coronavirus tests. They further said coronavirus tests sent to commercial labs have “at minimum a 3-4 day turnaround.”
Those concerns and others are laid out in a letter from the Hospital & Health System Association of Pennsylvania to Gov. Tom Wolf.
In an interview, Mark Ross, the hospital association’s vice president for emergency management, said some hospitals are reusing masks and taking other steps to extend the supply.
Still, Ross said Pennsylvania hospitals and the state have been proactive in planning for such an outbreak, and hospitals have been conserving resources since it began. He expressed confidence Pennsylvania hospitals can avert shortages that would endanger patients and staff.
“Right now we are doing good,” he said.
However, Ross and state health officials on Thursday stressed it’s critically important for Pennsylvanians to heed advice to wash their hands frequently, avoid crowds, stay home if they are sick, and follow all other guidance for preventing spread of coronavirus.
“We need to make sure we are doing everything we can to make sure we don’t get to that breaking point,” Ross said.
State officials also expressed confidence that existing stockpiles within the state and expected supplies from the federal government can ward off extreme shortages.
Experts say about 10% of people who get coronavirus become seriously ill and need to be hospitalized, often requiring ICU care and ventilators.
State Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said on Thursday the ten percent figure is holding true in Pennsylvania, although she didn’t say how people are hospitalized with coronavirus.
Pennsylvania had 185 cases of coronavirus as of Thursday — 52 more than the previous day.
Levine said hospitals face “a very real possibility of many more seriously ill and critically ill patients than they normally see.”
But she said Pennsylvania still has “a chance” of avoiding an overwhelmed health care system if people follow advice to stay home to avoid catching coronavirus or spreading it.
Levine said it’s especially important to abide by the governor’s order for non-essential businesses to close, saying “it will save lives.”
“Now is the time,” she said.
Wolf escalated that effort at 5 p.m., issuing an order that all “non-life sustaining” businesses close at 8 p.m. Thursday. Wolf cited the Emergency Management Services Code, which he said gives him the authority to order the closings during a disaster emergency.
Pennsylvania Department of Health spokesman Nate Wardle said in an email earlier Thursday that the state has more than 37,000 hospital beds, nearly 3,400 intensive care and critical care beds and 71 pediatric intensive care beds.
He said the department on Thursday was shipping personal protective equipment to hospitals and front line responders in about 40 counties.
“We have received some requests for masks and have worked to fulfill those. In addition, we did receive a number of supplies, including masks, gowns, face guards and gloves from the federal government’s storage over the weekend, and have additional requests into them,” he said.
Levine said the state is relaxing licensing requirements to enable hospitals to quickly add beds.
President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence were pressed about shortages of masks and supplies during a news conference Thursday. Pence said manufacturers of masks have agreed to increase production, with the administration aiding them with loosened liability regulations.
“They are being made now. Many are available now,” said Trump, who added his administration is working with state governors to get them to places of need.
Nationally, there have been reports of extreme shortages of masks and protective equipment, with some health care workers saying they lack protection while caring for the sick. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently suggested using bandannas and scarves as a last resort.
In Pennsylvania, Ross, the hospital association executive, said hospitals have powered respirators called “pappers” which can be used in the absence of masks.
Ross credited the state health department for acting early and working closely with health care providers to plan and coordinate a response. He said he believes that planning, combined with everyone practicing social distancing, can enable Pennsylvania to avoid desperate situations that are happening in some places.
In the letter to Wolf, the hospital association asked for help with many things, including: building or repurposing space for screening and caring for people; providing childcare for health care workers dealing with closed schools; providing housing for patients who aren’t so sick that they must continue occupying a hospital bed, but are too sick to go home; and expanded tele-health capabilities and insurance coverage for it.
The association also said canceling elective surgeries, which Levine has requested to free up coronavirus resources, will have a “devastating” financial impact on hospitals.
A big fear among hospitals, Ross said, is that people who aren’t very sick, or are simply worried they may be sick, will overload hospitals, causing unnecessary use of protective supplies and staff time.
He said it’s critically important for people who aren’t severely ill to call a local health care provider rather than go directly to the hospital.
“We can flatten the curve of this disease,” he said. “If we flatten the curve, the strain on the health care system will be less, and we’ll get through this. But that’s what we have to do.”