Outside COVID patients coming to state hospitals
Some Connecticut hospitals are accepting out-of-state COVID patients, but the state Department of Public Health says it’s not tracking them.
The exact number of COVID patients from other states being treated at Connecticut hospitals remained unclear Tuesday. However, at least two major hospital networks said they have been accepting these transfers in limited circumstances, but did not provide the specific number of patients.
A state Department of Public Health
official said Tuesday the agency has not been receiving reports about out-ofstate COVID patients being treated in Connecticut.
Officials from Hartford HealthCare, which runs hospitals across the state, said it operates a Care Logistics Center that allows hospitals nationwide to inquire about transferring patients.
Considering the surge of delta variant infections has overwhelmed the bed capacities of some intensive care units in other parts of the country, HHC officials said the requests from out of state have recently increased.
“The Care Logistics Center has fielded dozens of calls from out-of-state hospitals,“said Beth Ciotti, vice president for care logistics. “Over the weekend, Hartford Hospital received a COVID-related patient from a hospital out west. And has also accepted non-COVID patients from throughout the Northeast. As in any health crisis whenever possible, Hartford HealthCare answers the call for help.”
A spokesperson for HHC said the out-of-state patient at Hartford Hospital was from Oklahoma.
Trinity Health of New England, which runs large hospitals in Hartford and Waterbury, said it also has been accepting COVID-19 patients from outside Connecticut to help provide adequate care for those who are seriously ill.
“As a mission-based organization, we are deeply committed to serve as a healing presence to each of our patients and our community. In some cases, due to high volumes of COVID-19 patients in many parts of the country, our work to serve those in need must reach beyond our local cities, towns. In recent days and weeks, we have received and accepted requests for out-of-state patient transfers, specifically for COVID-positive patients with higher critical needs,” Trinity Health of New England said in a statement.
In general, the requests have been increasing during the spike in delta variant-related infections, but the overall number is relatively low, health care officials said.
“The number of requests remain low, but we will continue to serve these patients and those states/ communities in need of our assistance to the best of our ability, while ensuring the safety and needs of our colleagues and our local community remain top priority,” Trinity Health said in the statement.
While some hospitals are taking out-of-state COVID-19 patients, Yale New Haven Health and Stamford Health said they are not accepting transfers.
“We are not accepting COVID-19 patient transfers from out of state. We currently have 10 COVID-19 positive inpatients, and a small number of those patients have recently traveled to other parts of the country. The majority of all of our COVID-19 positive inpatients are unvaccinated,” said Dr. Asha Shah, director of infectious diseases at Stamford Health.
At Nuvance Health, which runs hospitals in Danbury, Norwalk, New Milford and Sharon, officials said they are ready to help, but have not received any requests.
“Nuvance Health hospitals are willing and prepared to help other hospitals because we are all in this together,” the health network said in a statement. “At this time, there has not been a need or any requests to accept transfer patients from out-of-state hospitals that are outside our health system due to COVID-19 capacity concerns.”
Hospital capacity has been a crucial issue since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Within weeks of the first reported case in Connecticut, the state’s hospitals saw capacity quickly fill up amid an influx of ill patients.
By late April 2020, there were nearly 2,000 COVID patients in Connecticut hospitals, but that number dropped through the summer last year. Hospitalizations spiked again in late December 2020 to more than 1,200 patients, state reports show.
Numbers had again dropped through June of this year before the delta variant took hold in Connecticut, driving up new infections. Hospitalizations rose to more than 350 patients statewide, but officials
in Connecticut believe the high vaccination rate here spared the state the worst of what has been seen in other parts of the country where hospitals have again been overwhelmed with new COVID-19 patients.
Throughout the pandemic, Gov. Ned Lamont has said overall hospitalization numbers have been a key metric informing his decisions on whether to modify restrictions meant to limit the spread of the virus.
There were 17 fewer Connecticut COVID-related hospitalizations recorded on Tuesday, dropping the statewide total to 363. The daily positivity rate on Tuesday surged to 4.65 percent, the state’s data showed.
While some Connecticut hospitals have taken COVID-19 patients, officials said they have also treated out-of-state patients not sick with the coronavirus.
“We have cared for nonCOVID patients from Vermont and Massachusetts in the past week,” said Dr. Steven Valassis, chairman of emergency medicine at Hartford HealthCare’s St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport. “While we focus on our community here, we will continue to assist hospitals in our neighboring states to provide the specialized treatment their patients’ need.”