By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
Despite a surge in COVID-19 cases in Lincoln County, the Samaritan Health System hospitals in Newport and Lincoln City are in good shape with adequate space for most patients, including those with the virus.
But in an interview with YachatsNews this week, Dr. Leslie Ogden, chief executive officer of the two hospitals, said issues are arising when more critically ill patients have to be transferred to higher level care at the system’s main hospital in Corvallis or elsewhere in Oregon or the Northwest.
As of Tuesday, 18 of 25 beds at Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital in Newport were filled, including two COVID-19 patients in intensive care, Ogden said. At Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital in Lincoln City, 15 of 16 beds were occupied, one with a COVID-19 patient who was not in intensive care.
In all, there were 22 COVID-19 patients in the five-hospital Samaritan system, she said, the “vast majority” from Linn County and most unvaccinated.
“We are doing much better locally than regionally or statewide,” Ogden said. “We’re not dealing with the same level of problems as other areas of the state.”
The two hospitals are not yet holding off on elective procedures, Ogden said, but managers, doctors and nurses are constantly checking to balance demand with available space.
“We’re not cancelling surgeries but rescheduling them when necessary,” she said. “We’re just trying a lot of different things.”
Especially hard-hit hospitals are in low-vaccinated counties of southern and eastern Oregon. That becomes an issue when critically ill patients in more rural areas of the state try to transfer patients to higher care hospitals in larger cities. She said the SHS headquarters hospital in Corvallis recently had to find treatment for critical cases at hospitals in Idaho, Washington and California.
Ogden said the 18-month pandemic is also taking its toll on staff, some of whom have decided to retire, leave because of burnout, or have to deal with family-related COVID-19 issues. And that comes on top of a shortage of most medical providers, she said.
The relatively good condition of the local hospital situation comes as Gov. Kate Brown on Wednesday ordered a return to people wearing masks in public, indoor places as hospitalizations skyrocket because of the surge of Delta variant cases.
The number of hospitalized people with COVID-19 spiked Wednesday to 665 – more than double what the state once thought was a critical level — and the number of people in intensive care continued rising to 172. Modeling released by Oregon Health & Science University on Tuesday projected hospitalizations could climb to about 1,100 in September without action by Brown.
Cases jump in Lincoln County
While Lincoln County has not been as hard-hit with COVID-19 case increases as some low-vaccinated counties, the daily counts are mounting fast. The county had 110 cases as of Sunday, just eight days into the month of August. That was more than all of July, which had nearly double the number of cases as June.
Then on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the Oregon Health Authority reported 75 more cases in the county – all believed to be of the Delta variant. The OHA reported another 31 cases in Lincoln County on Thursday — making more than 100 for the week.
“The increase is steep and fast,” interim county health director Florence Pourtal told county commissioners Monday.
The so-called “breakthrough” cases – a fully vaccinated person getting sick with the coronavirus – makes up about 25 percent of all cases in the county, Pourtal said. But, vaccinated people who fall ill generally do not get very sick and are rarely hospitalized, she said.
County commissioners had previously recommended people wear masks in indoor, public places – but like all but one of 36 Oregon counties stopped short of making that mandatory. Brown’s order on Wednesday saved them from making that decision.
Still, Commissioner Kaety Jacobson said mask compliance will be an issue, no matter who orders it.
“People who took it seriously from the beginning wore masks, got vaccinated – those are the people I’m hearing from wanting a mask mandate,” she said Monday. “It’s the people who are unvaccinated I worry about. I don’t think they’d follow a mask order.”
In other coronavirus pandemic developments Wednesday:
- The owner of Yachats Brewing + Farmstore said in a Facebook post Wednesday that the brewery and restaurant will remain closed this weekend because three staff members had tested positive for COVID-19, prompting a closure last week. Nathan Bernard said he hoped to reopen Aug. 19 if all employees have confirmed, negative tests;
- Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital will reopen a drive-through testing site Aug. 17 at its Center for Health Education in Newport;
- The OHA said the number of cases across the state increased 40 percent during the week of Aug. 2-8; hospitalizations increased by 256 patients, the fifth consecutive week of increases; and the percentage of positive tests increased to 9.5 percent;
- The positivity rate of COVID-19 tests in Lincoln County was 16 percent this week.