Alaska’s Largest Hospital Says The Strain Of COVID Is Forcing It To Ration Care



Enlarge this image

Front-line caregivers wait in line to receive a Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020, at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, Alaska.

Loren Holmes/AP




hide caption

toggle caption

Loren Holmes/AP

Enlarge this image

In this photo provided by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, U.S. Army 1st Lt. Blaine Woodcock, a critical care nurse, provides care to a COVID-positive patient during the COVID-19 response operations at Kootenai Health regional medical center in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, on Sept. 6, 2021.

Kaden D. Pitt/AP


hide caption

toggle caption

Kaden D. Pitt/AP

In this photo provided by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, U.S. Army 1st Lt. Blaine Woodcock, a critical care nurse, provides care to a COVID-positive patient during the COVID-19 response operations at Kootenai Health regional medical center in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, on Sept. 6, 2021.

Kaden D. Pitt/AP

In northern Nevada, particularly in the state’s rural communities, hospitals are reporting higher-than-average hospitalizations thanks to infections among the unvaccinated.

On Wednesday, hospitals throughout the state reported overcrowding in emergency departments.

Stacey Wright told News 4-FOX 11 in Nevada that her mother, who needed emergency surgery, died after she couldn’t get into an intensive care unit at Carson Tahoe Health for several hours.

«They were completely filled with COVID (patients). You’d be in the room with my mother and they’d say ‘New patient, COVID, room this new patient.’ It was like a movie,» she said.

The Nevada Hospital Association said several facilities are requesting triage tents to be erected outside the facilities, as well as staffing aid through the National Guard or other federal resources.

Back in Alaska, doctors at Providence believe the infection rate will continue to worsen over the next few weeks.

«As we watch the case rates rise in our community, we anticipate an escalation in COVID-19 hospitalizations in the coming two to four weeks,» Kristen Solarta Walkinshaw, the Chief of Staff wrote for the Medical Executive Committee for Providence Alaska Medical Center.

«What is already a stressful situation could rapidly progress to a catastrophe,
she wrote. «We are doing absolutely all that we can.»

Health officials urged unvaccinated Americans to get immunized against the coronavirus.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says full vaccination with any of the available coronavirus vaccines dramatically reduces the risk of hospitalization.

  • COVID-19
  • coronavirus
  • Alaska



Комментарии 0

Оставить комментарий