Patients are fewer but care intensifies

The number of covid-19 patients at Northwest Arkansas hospitals has dropped slightly over the past month, but those admitted more often require intensive care or use of a ventilator.

Hospital staff expect more new patients as a result of Labor Day weekend and Razorback football games.

The workload never really abated over the past month or so, said Eric Pianalto, president of Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas in Rogers. The intense care required for patients

getting sicker now compared to earlier on in the pandemic offsets the lower number of patients admitted, he said.

The delta variant of covid-19 is affecting younger, healthier people more acutely than the previous strain did, Pianalto said. Hospital staff are having to hook up people in their 20s, 30s or 40s to a ventilator. The chances of recovering after being on a ventilator are low, he said.

Those patients all have a common trait: they aren’t vaccinated, Pianalto said.

“It’s a pretty indiscriminate variant. It doesn’t really matter whether you have other health conditions or not,” he said. “People who get sick from it get really sick from it, and it doesn’t really matter their age or other conditions.”

Hospital staff aren’t seeing similarly younger, healthier people who did get vaccinated put in intensive care or on a ventilator, Pianalto said. As of Friday, about 91% of 120 covid-19 patients in Northwest Arkansas hospitals were unvaccinated. The few vaccinated people who end up dying or in intensive care or on a ventilator are elderly or had some other debilitating health condition, he said.

The all-time high for covid hospitalizations in Benton and Washington counties was 173 on Aug. 11. That number was down to 120 on Friday, according to a news release from Northwest Arkansas Health Care Providers.

However, Wednesday marked an all-time high of 140 intensive care unit beds for covid and non-covid patients. On Friday, there were 119 ICU beds in use. Ventilator use has stayed consistent. The all-time high was 85 on Aug. 12. There were 71 patients on ventilators on Friday.

Kim Miller, region president for Baptist Health in Fort Smith and Van Buren, said the hospital’s critical care census has remained fairly consistent over the last two weeks. There were 71 covid patients at the two hospitals on Friday. In Fort Smith, 31 were in critical care and 19 on ventilators.

Historically, the state and region have seen a rise in cases within about two weeks after a holiday, Pianalto said. Razorback football games also can serve as a holiday-type event, he said.

Labor Day and the first home Arkansas football game of the season both happened last weekend. Benton and Washington counties led the state in new cases Thursday, with 210 and 204, respectively. On Friday, Benton County was second in new cases at 142 and Washington County was third with 138.

The Northwest Arkansas Council is trying to counter the effect of gatherings on the spread of covid-19 by setting up vaccination clinics. The council at one point routinely held mass clinics at centralized locations in Fayetteville and Lowell, but has switched its strategy by spreading out to where the people are, said Ryan Cork with the council’s Health Care Transformation Division.

Clinics have popped up at football games, farmers’ markets, concerts, neighborhoods and community events. The strategy seems to have had an effect, Cork said.

“We’ve seen by being in more spaces we’re able to reach more patients who wouldn’t have normally been able to come out to a covid shot clinic, either because of lack of transportation or a work schedule that didn’t allow for it,” he said.

Marti Sharkey, Fayetteville’s public health officer, on Wednesday told the city’s Board of Health vaccination rates are going up about a percentage point weekly in the city. Washington County last weekend breached 60% of its population 12 and older being at least partially immunized. Vaccinations had slowed down before a recent surge in cases from the delta variant, she said.

As of Friday, nearly 50% of 200,760 residents in Washington County were fully vaccinated, and about 49% of 231,247 Benton County residents were fully vaccinated. About 11% in Washington County were partially immunized with nearly 10% in Benton County partially immunized.

Nearly 42% of 160,871 people 12 and older in Sebastian and Crawford counties were fully vaccinated. About 9% of 107,538 Sebastian County residents were partially immunized and 8% of 53,333 Crawford County residents were partially immunized.

The council is prepared to work with private companies trying to comply with President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate. Biden announced Thursday all businesses with more than 100 employees must require their workers be immunized or take weekly covid tests.

The council is ready to coordinate volunteers to come administer shots at worksites, Cork said. It also has partnerships to facilitate testing, he said.

“We won’t cross over into the political arena, but if Company X says we would love to offer this, then we’ll be there,” Cork said.

Stacy Ryburn can be reached by email at sryburn@nwadg.com or on Twitter @stacyryburn.