Hospital’s delta-surge struggles make ICU beds an uncertainty
Shortly before 11 a.m. Thursday, three beds in Jefferson Regional Medical Center’s intensive care unit were available.
But that’s no guarantee they remained free by the end of the day.
“It changes by the minute, depending on whether we have ICU beds or not,” hospital spokeswoman Wendy Talbot said.
Finding an ICU bed for a covid-19 patient who needs it the most hasn’t been easy to come by in Arkansas.
On Tuesday, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said the state’s ICU beds were full. On Thursday, information from the Arkansas Department of Health revealed that 352 covid-19 patients were placed on ventilators, two shy of the state single-day record set the day before.
At Jefferson Regional, 11 of the 24 patients battling the disease were in ICU beds and four others were in the unit for other conditions as of 10:46 a.m. Thursday, according to Talbot.
“If you look at that, 73% of our ICU beds are occupied with covid patients,” Talbot said. “We have a total of 18 beds in ICU. We have three available. That could change in the next hour. We’re always trying to take care of our patients. If they have to stay in the emergency department until we find a bed for them, that’s what we’re going to do.
“As soon as patients get better, we can move them to the covid floor and free up a bed for someone who needs it.”
Talbot touted Jefferson Regional’s nursing leadership for finding necessary beds for each patient.
According to ADH data through Thursday, Jefferson County totaled 201 deaths and 475 active cases of coronavirus. The active case count dropped by 14 from Wednesday.
Of the 11,495 total cases since the beginning of the pandemic in the county, there have been 10,817 recoveries.
Talbot added 89% of the hospitalized covid-19 patients as of Thursday morning were unvaccinated, a possible connection to the low vaccination rates in the county. She said 33.3% of its residents were fully immunized
and 15.8% were partially immunized.
“At the beginning, it was hard to get a vaccine,” Talbot said. “But now, they are readily available at hospitals and pharmacies across the region. What we’re hoping, now that the vaccines have the full FDA approval, that will ease people’s minds over the hesitation to get the vaccine. We’re hoping that [vaccination] increases for Jefferson County.”
Last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced its plans to offer booster shots for those who have already been fully vaccinated, pending approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Talbot said as soon as those shots are approved, Jefferson Regional will set up clinics for those doses.
Meanwhile, she added, immunocompromised patients can receive booster shots at the hospital’s HealthWorks clinic at 4747 Dusty Lake Drive.
Nearly two whole weeks into the school year, none of the covid-19 patients at Jefferson Regional were younger than 18, Talbot said. That is despite increases in the number of covid-19 cases in each of Jefferson County’s three school districts.
Since Aug. 1, the White Hall School District has had 33 total covid-19 cases among students, faculty and staff, including 14 active cases as of Thursday. The total in that district increased by 10 from previous ADH data released Monday.
The Pine Bluff and Watson Chapel school districts each have had 23 total cases. Eleven of Pine Bluff’s cases were active, compared with 10 in Watson Chapel.
The Pine Bluff and White Hall districts have enacted mandates for face masks to be worn inside campus buildings, as students younger than 12 are ineligible to be vaccinated against covid-19.
“We have had excellent support for the mask mandate and today is no exception,” Pine Bluff Superintendent Barbara Warren said via email when classes began in her district Aug. 18. “You have to remember that this has been how we have operated around the district since March 2020. The most spirited conversations that I have been a part of about masks has been about the concern that we WOULDN’T mandate masks. Many have shared support for the mask mandate and also relief once they learned that it was approved and in place.”
A group of White Hall parents, however, has challenged their district policy and filed a petition for a hearing at a special school board meeting to be announced next week.
The Watson Chapel district “strongly recommends” wearing of face masks but does not require them.
Watson Chapel Superintendent Andrew Curry announced another covid-19 vaccination clinic for Sept. 10 from 10 a.m.noon in Room 100 at Watson Chapel High School. Anyone 12 and older with parental consent is eligible to receive the vaccination.
Consent forms may be picked up from the campus nurse. Students are asked to return completed consent forms by Sept. 3. The second dose will be given Oct. 1 from 10 a.m.-noon at the same location.
For further details, contact WCSD Nurse Rose Sullivent at (870) 550-4646.