BELLEVUE, Wash. — Overlake Medical Center in Bellevue is experiencing a strain on staffing as coronavirus cases increase in its intensive care unit and among staff members at the hospital. The strain is being felt at hospitals across Puget Sound while COVID-19 cases surge in Washington.
At one point this week, the number of coronavirus patients at Overlake Medical Center had doubled since last week.
In a statement, the hospital said staffing is an ongoing challenge.
"Due to the large increase in prevalence of COVID in the community, more staff are testing positive for COVID-19 – notably many more through family exposure than actually contracting the illness," the statement reads. "Unfortunately, any exposure means they are off work for 14 days which further stresses staffing issues."
Dr. Amy Markezich, a pulmonary critical care medicine specialist at Overlake Medical Center, said one-third of the ICU is full of patients with coronavirus.
"If we continue on the same track, we will have double the number of COVID patients this time next week," Markezich said.
"Our concern is, are we going to have enough staff, are we going to have enough critical care nurses, are we going to have enough respiratory therapists to help to take care of both people who come in with COVID infections and people who come in with non-COVID related issues?" she said.
Hospital staff said the current surge feels different from the surge in the spring.
"Right now we don't have stay-at-home orders," she said. "We are relying on people to voluntarily stay at home and not socialize, and at this point, I think because people are tired of dealing with a pandemic, I don't think people are staying at home as much as they were back in the spring."
Markezich said she also noticed during the last surge, there were localized pockets where coronavirus was especially active in King County.
"Now, we're seeing it everywhere. So we're seeing it – not just a few hospitals are surging; it's all of the area hospitals," she said. "There is less capacity for other hospitals to help out the hospitals that are too busy, because everyone is getting busy at the same time."
As of Dec. 2, Overlake Medical Center staff are caring for over a dozen patients with coronavirus.
"My worry is, with all of the hospitals experiencing this, no one is going to be able to help out," said Markezich. "We're going to all be struggling on our own."
Unlike several other hospitals across Puget Sound, Overlake Medical Center has not changed their policy on elective procedures.
The hospital said in a statement, "So far, we have not curtailed elective procedures but continue to monitor several parameters every day, and will always act in a manner that optimizes patient safety."