CEO: St. Vincent can handle surge
Hospital is treating eight COVID-19 patients; mayor encourages residents to stay safe, follow guidelines
Despite a spike in COVID-19 cases in Santa Fe County and an increase in hospitalizations statewide, Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center isn’t being inundated with patients, its leader said Monday.
“While we are seeing an increase in positives ... we’re really not seeing it in the hospital right now,” President and CEO Lillian Montoya said during a virtual news conference hosted by Mayor Alan Webber.
While Santa Fe’s biggest hospital remains in good shape, Montoya and Webber urged residents to remain vigilant.
Santa Fe County’s seven-day average is now at roughly 27 new cases per day, Webber said.
“We had another Santa Fe County resident die from COVID yesterday,” the mayor said, adding the statewide numbers are so concerning that New Mexicans should be prepared for “new measures,” or restrictions.
“I also believe that we’ve seen the county and the residents in Santa Fe respond in the past very constructively and with great discipline to bring down the numbers, so we know we can do it,” Webber said. “We know that there are the protocols to do it and the discipline to do it. We just have to remember that it’s up to us to step up and do the right thing.”
Montoya said the community, for the most part, is “doing so many of the right things.”
“The hand washing, mask wearing, social distancing, honoring the public health orders, is making a tremendous difference in our community,” she said. “We’re not experiencing the same surge that Albuquerque is seeing right now. That’s not to say that
we won’t, but I think that our community on the whole has been really pretty good about following all of those safe practices and managing exposure.”
Christus St. Vincent, which continues to serve as the “hub hospital” for north-central New Mexico, is treating eight COVID19 positive patients, two from Santa Fe County and the other six from other communities, Montoya said.
“The hospital is generally pretty full, but it’s not COVID-positive patients,” she said.
COVID-19 positive patients are in a designated area of the hospital apart from the general population and receive care from a dedicated team of medical workers who aren’t “going in and out of other patient rooms,” Montoya added.
All patients are tested for the virus before they are admitted.
“We’re testing everyone presurgical,” Montoya said, adding the hospital also is administering
COVID-19 tests to about 100 people daily at its respiratory clinic on Cerrillos Road.
“The community, it should feel safe,” she said, knowing residents have access to a hospital that is prepared and has resources for testing.
Most of the positive cases tend to be among 20- to 40-year-olds, Montoya said.
“Those that end up in the hospital still are those that had some other health conditions that led them to be more susceptible to getting the virus and tend to be older,” she said.
Montoya said Christus St. Vincent is on a rotation to handle overflow from hospitals in Albuquerque.
“We continue to partner with and receive transfers from UNM, Loveless and Presbyterian,” she said. “We’re also part of a weekly call with the Department of Health to make sure that we’re all coordinated in our response so ... I have a great deal of confidence in our communication efforts and in our preparedness.”