https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/wa-hospitals-stretch-care-idaho-covid-19-patients/CWKJEOZDBNHOFGIAS3VWYOZZM4/ - https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/wa-hospitals-stretch-care-idaho-covid-19-patients/
Washington hospitals are full, working together to shift patients around the state during the recent COVID-19 surge. Now there is a new demand on resources: COVID-19 patients from Idaho seeking care in eastern Washington. Hospital leaders said there is little room to help. “We are keeping our heads above water — but barely,” said Dr. Chris Baliga, an infectious disease doctor at Virginia Mason in Seattle. “We’re stretched. Do we get transfers from Idaho? Yes, we do. Are we helping? Yes. But is our capacity limited? Yes.” Hospitals across the state are canceling surgeries and procedures to free up hospital beds for COVID-19 patients.
According to the Washington State Hospital Association, 95% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated. Those who are vaccinated have other medical conditions; they’re transplant patients or undergoing cancer treatment. Now patients from Idaho are trickling into Washington’s already overwhelmed health care system.
Federal Emergency Management Agency sent in military doctors and nurses to help in Idaho. At this point, it doesn’t appear Washington hospitals will be getting reinforcements. The Washington State Hospital Association reached out to the National Guard. “We don’t think there will be relief from the National Guard. We have made inquiries about that with the state, and they really feel like those resources are deployed elsewhere and won’t be available to us,” said Briley.
Gov. Jay Inslee expressed his frustration with Idaho leaders last week. There is no mask mandate, and the vaccination rate of residents 12 and older sits at around 45%. “We certainly need our friends in Idaho government to do more to preserve their citizen’s health because we know their medical crisis is becoming our problem,” said Inslee.
“The majority of our patients are not vaccinated. The majority of our patients who expire are not vaccinated, and I always sit there and wonder, ‘What if they had gotten vaccinated?’” said Dr. Baliga.
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