No intensive care unit beds left in county or region
There are no Intensive Care Unit hospital beds available today in the six-county region that includes Yamhill County, according to the Oregon Health Authority, and only 16 adult non-ICU beds.
Statewide, just 6% of ICU beds are available — 41 beds, out of 652 total — and 7% of adult non ICU beds, or 292 beds, out of 4,193.
The Portland Metro area has 17 ICU beds and 71 non-ICU beds, available to serve all of Clackamas, Clatsop, Columbia, Multomah, Washington and Tillamook counties.
Yamhill County is located in Region 2, with Benton, Linn, Lincoln, Marion and Polk counties.
Governor Kate Brown announced that she will hold a press conference at 11 a.m. Thursday to address the ongoing crisis.
The county reported 47 new cases of COVID-19 today, and one death. A 50-year-old woman died from Covid on Aug. 11, at Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center, after testing positive on July 25.
There have been 5,708 cases to date in the county, and 85 deaths. Six people are hospitalized; one new hospitalization was reported today.
The county’s positive test rate also remained extremely high, with 14.7% of tests reported for Aug. 16 positive. Yamhill County Public Health today on Facebook asked people in need of a test for Covid to contact their doctor or a local pharmacy, rather than going to the emergency room. It said people may also look online, at https://govstatus.egov.com/or-oha-covid-19-testing.
Mike Antrim, spokesman for Providence Newberg, told the News-Register the hospital has “a few options” for handling the crisis: “Activate our surge plan that utilizes beds in alternate care areas; Actively work to safely discharge patients; Care for patients waiting for beds in our emergency department and work with our sister ministries in Portland, part of Region 1, to transfer as appropriate.”
Antrim said that “ We ask that anyone (Providence patient or not) experiencing COVID symptoms, even mild ones, or has been exposed to someone who has tested positive to please call 971-326-8718 for assistance. We can provide triage directly to testing and virtual care for patients needing a provider visit. Emergency rooms and urgent cares should not be considered a primary source for patient-requested testing and should only be used during an emergency. If you need urgent medical care, call 911. And please get vaccinated.”
Willamette Valley Medical Center has not yet responded to a request for comment about how it is handling the crisis.
Comments
Peacock791
WVMC should have worked harder to get the union contract done rather than stress out all the nurses who voted at over 80% to form a union. Many nurses are out on stress leave right now. It was preventable.
GreggR
Is this a physical lack of ICU beds, or a lack of available beds based on staffing levels?
Bizzyditchaz
All preventable! This cluster falls SQUARELY on the heads of Mary Starrett and Lindsey Berschauer for their willful ignorance!
Treehouse
And we probably won't be past the peak until October.
This is why we flattened the curve last year so that we could avoid having to turn away critical care patients or leave them gasping for breath in an ER waiting area.
When people then (and now) object to public health restrictions intended to slow down the rates of transmission this is what happens.
gary
This is inaccurate reporting. There are plenty of physical beds there are not enough staff for the state requirements of patient to nursing staff ratio. With WVMC and their bang-up job of not taking care of the nursing staff we have less staff for the ratio so that means less patients can be admitted. It's not just WVMC though! Empty rooms are in every hospital, we have a mass shortage of nurses and nursing staff in general and have for years. THAT is the true pandemic! If we had the staff to care the way we would need this probably would not be nearly as bad and would have passed by now.