MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Healthcare workers are learning a new reality as COVID-19 sweeps across West Virginia.
On Talkline, WVU Medicine Dr. Albert Wright says they are several across their system.
“WVU Medicine has about 30 COVID-19 patients in-house today around the state,”Wright said,”About half of those folks are on ventilators.”
Wright says in the larger hospitals dedicated units can be established, but in smaller buildings the COVID-19 positive patients are placed in isolation.
“Obviously there’s a very high level of personal protective equipment when our employees are working with a known or suspected COVID-19 patient,”Wright said,”We’re going to make sure we keep those employees extra safe and have everything they need with gowns, gloves and masks.”
Wright says because the virus can be carried with no symptoms, they’ve had people develop the disease while at the hospital. Because of that, a new classification of employee has been created.
“We now have what we call Category II employees that are taking care of low-risk patients,”Wright said,”We’re having them wear masks try to protect them, because we have to be able to keep our workforce especially if we have that surge we fear.”
If the surge does strike, Wright says he’s confident the hospital system can handle it.
“I’m at Ruby Memorial today, and we have a little less than 400 patients in-house and normally we would have 650 to 675 in-house,”Wright said,”We’ve still got significant ICU capacity, bed capacity and ventilator capacity.”
Wright says latest model predicting the COVID-19 surge shows May 4 as the date that hospitals resources will be tested. He says residents have followed CDC guidelines, and he like others say that hopefully will flatten the curve.
Wright added that elective procedures that are not being done will have to be addressed in the future. People will have to have hips and replaced or other orthopedic procedures done.
“We starting to work on a recovery plan, because at some point we can’t defer these procedures forever and we have to able to start to operate on folks after this potential surge,”Wright said,”The coronavirus is not going to go away, it’s going to be here for six to nine months.”