State of Texas officials pledged help to area hospitals, which will come in handy locally as the number of COVID-related visits rise at Guadalupe Regional Medical Center.
“Guadalupe Regional Medical Center as well as the San Antonio region have been experiencing a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases for approximately four weeks,” GRMC Public Information Officer Elizabeth McCown said Thursday. “GRMC is currently caring for 31 COVID patients in addition to our non-COVID census.”
The hospital’s seven-day moving average for COVID-19 hospitalizations jumped by 26% over the prior week to 30 per day, she said. GRMC’s seven-day moving average for new COVID-19 admissions equaled four per day, McCown said.
Also increasing by 26% higher than the previous week was the hospital’s emergency department visits for flu or COVID-like illnesses, she said.
Of the patients hospitalized due to the coronavirus, 96% were unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated, McCown said. GRMC considers people who are two weeks out from completion of second doses of Moderna or Pfizer vaccines or one dose of the Janssen vaccine to be fully vaccinated, she said.
Help from the state dealing with crowding at the hospital could be on the way, McCown said.
The Texas Senate Committee on Health and Human Services held a hearing Tuesday regarding the status of the disease in the state and hospital resources. After the hearing, Texas’ Department of Health and Human Services announced that the state would fill requests for medical surge staff unable to be met locally, McCown said.
“DSHS announced it is working with staffing agencies to recruit 2,500 medical personnel to assist facilities with the current increase in COVID-19 patients,” she said. “GRMC has submitted a State of Texas Assistance Request requesting additional health care providers and has recently brought on approximately eight health care providers — a mix of nurses and respiratory therapists — through private agency contracts.”
The hospital is prepared to set up temporary units in non-traditional care areas to accommodate higher volumes of critical care patients in the event enough staffing assistance arrives, McCown said.
Guadalupe County Commissioners Court also on Tuesday pledged $100,000 of American Recovery Plan Act money for off-duty paramedics to help administer monoclonal antibody infusions at the hospital. Officials said the paramedics’ help would allow hospital staff currently administering the procedure to get back to helping other patients.
On Aug. 9, Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management and Department of State Health Services to open additional COVID-19 antibody infusion centers in communities across the state. The treatments are expected to help COVID-19 patients who do not need hospitalization to prevent their symptoms from worsening, the governor said.
The centers are expected to help increase bed capacity in hospitals so medical personnel can better tend to the most ill patients, Abbott said.
The governors is also directed Texas Division of Emergency Management and Department of State Health Services to increase vaccination availability across the state and encourages all Texans to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
“The state of Texas is taking action to combat the recent rise in COVID-19 cases and ensure that our hospitals and communities have the resources and support they need to mitigate the virus,” Abbott said. “Texans can help bolster our efforts by getting vaccinated against COVID-19. The COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective, and it is our best defense against this virus.”
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August 15, 2021 at 12:00PM
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GRMC gets help with rising COVID cases | Alert | seguingazette.com - Seguin Gazette-Enterprise
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