SEATTLE — While mask mandates and COVID vaccine requirements are seemingly being dropped left and right, the UW Medicine hospital system is warning that capacity remains virtually maxed out across all four of its campuses.
Dr. John Lynch, medical director of infection control at Harborview Medical Center, was outspoken at the height of the omicron surge just over a month ago warning the public that even his hospital, home to the state’s only Level I adult and pediatric trauma center, was approaching a crisis situation with the number of patients flooding the system.
Now, Lynch is again warning the public that not much has changed despite the falling number of omicron cases and hospitalizations.
“For the most part, every bed is full. And when I say a bed: that's a bed that requires a nurse, a therapist, a doctor or a nutritionist, EVS (environmental services), facilities and engineering, making sure everything's working,” Lynch said. “Those are all part of an ecosystem around that bed. And I would say most of those spaces are full across our system.”
As hospitals and health officials have explained in countless briefings since the pandemic started taking its toll, hospitals have had to wage war against the virus on multiple fronts, especially bed capacity and staff burnout, which go hand in hand.
Additionally, for the past few months hospitals have been dealing with a backlog of patients who are stuck in the hospital with nowhere else to go due to red tape or staff shortages at long-term care facilities.
Currently, UW Medicine has roughly 215 patients that are pending discharge to other facilities following acute care treatment, according to spokeswoman Susan Gregg. These patients take up beds that could go to other patients needing hospitalization.
The problem is only expected to get worse as more patients come in for surgeries and other procedures that were delayed during the pandemic due to the high capacity and risk of COVID infection.
“Behind all this decrease in cases and hospitalizations, which is wonderful news, we have to continue to understand the impact this has had on our entire community. Everyone has been impacted negatively by this pandemic,” Lynch said.
This week, King County announced that it is ending its vaccination requirement for places like bars and restaurants next month.
Gov. Jay Inslee also announced that he is ending masking mandates for most places as well towards the end of March, but Lynch is warning that masks shouldn’t go anywhere and should be left up to each individual.
“Surgical masks, medical masks, K95s, N95s and similar shouldn't go anywhere. If you feel that that's the right move for you, I would encourage to actually support people to continue making those choices for themselves,” Lynch said.
As of Feb. 15, one in every four hospital patients throughout Washington state was COVID positive with 66% of the total population fully vaccinated, according to the Washington Department of Health.
As for King County, the 7-day average for case rates on Feb. 13 was over 1,000 cases, which is still higher than at any other point during the pandemic.