Healthcare workers - what are you seeing now?

[Kestrel]

I'm wondering what the healthcare folks are seeing right now? We're getting such mixed messages right now.

All in the same news broadcast, they said that:

New variant is much more contagious, New variant is much less serious than Delta, New variant is widespread, New variant is not being tested for??? (How they can know how widespread or serious it is without testing?)

Then a whole lecture about how those with ongoing conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure need to take their meds and do preventative care, and not go into the hospital, in order to reserve hospital space. I don't know how big of a problem that is, but it came off as offensive and patronizing.

What are healthcare pros seeing and being told?

[liz]

We're on 'red alert' at my hospital. Surgeries are being postponed. Covid numbers are on the rise. We're back to wearing N95 when in contact with patients. We're at critical staffing shortages, and we're getting paged every day to come in extra. It's bad. And I live in an area where masking and vaccination rates are pretty good.

[Snow mom]

I’m not in healthcare but that part about not having any other emergencies to the extreme best of your ability is real. A friends mom almost died and ended up with lots of rehab that shouldn’t have been necessary if she had just received the care she needed. She had an emergency and there was simply no care available for days on end. Of course emergencies are unpredictable, but now is another good time to avoid needing medical care.

[Snow mom]

Our current numbers are almost entirely delta + cold weather + holiday gatherings. Omicron is spreading and will likely replace delta, but we aren’t there yet. Our variant monitoring in the US is terrible, but there is some surveillance. I don’t think we know yet whether omicron might potentially be less deadly per infected person, but the high transmissibility seems to be becoming more and more clear, including to those who have received two doses of vaccine. A smaller percent of a larger number could still spell big trouble.

[MSWR0319]

Not a health care worker, but our hospital is on ER bypass for any EMS out of the county. My friend is a respiratory therapist there and says it's BAD. We are in a rural area, and are the closest hospital for many other counties. They have warned you may be waiting at least 45 minutes to get to a hospital if you're lucky. They have also warned that they may have to bypass in county EMS if it gets too bad. I'm debating calling our allergist to see if they can give me meds should DS have an anaphylactic reaction because I'm afraid he won't get treatment quick enough. He told me in the past that he'd given meds to patients who were traveling where they would have a wait, so I'm wondering if I should be prepared. They also have cut surgeries by 60% and the covid unit is full. They had to call in emergency stash ventilators. I'm guessing this is all delta and holidays still. It's only a matter of time till omicron shows up though, so I guess time will tell.

[o_mom]

A friend works in the NICU and last time I talked to her they had 6 babies in isolation because the mom's had COVID. 2 of the mom's were on vents. No visitation with the babies for either parent for 2 weeks.

[dogmom]

Not too bad here in Massachusetts, but trending up. We tend to be a few weeks after NYC. It’s starting to look bad there. I suspect January will be awful. Several places are getting really bad. Michigan is a disaster. (Look for the Mayo Clinic’s recent press release.) Med Twitter is taking about using FB to find hospitals to take sick patients again. There are absolute horror stories about pregnant women and COVID. It’s getting bad. It’s mostly Delta when it can be checked. Not all facilities can check themselves.

Also, I just had an exposure in my personal life, which I have managed to avoid for 21 months. So now I’m quarantining to bide my time to day 3,4 & 5 when I can test. This was supposed to be my vacation week.

[doberbrat]

I spent the day in the ER today (not as staff) and I was close to the dr/nurse stations so I could hear quite a bit. There were 2 patients admitted from the ER for Covid. The nurse was telling the patient next to me that it was very busy - Covid patients are ramping up again and they are still dealing with overflow patients from people who let things go, dr's offices that are over capacity and therefore more likely to send to ER. Patients are also staying in the ER longer because its taking longer to get results from Lab/radiology etc as they are short staffed & facing their own backlogs.

Dogmom I'm sorry you got an exposure on your precious week off. That sucks

[elephantmeg]

our numbers are climbing and staff out sick. It's spreading through vaccinated people. We're understaffed and being called daily. We've had so many die

[mom2binsd]

Our nursing home has had an occasional positive staff and 4 recent residents, two of who have had COVID twice, so this most recent would be a 3rd infection (their last COVID was over 6 months ago), so we believe their PCR tests were not accurate. Some of the staff are vaxxed (it's not required) and most of the 3 of the 4 residents are vaxxed and boostered. We have to wear an N95/goggles while any positive tests come back, but we are still allowing visitors (who are masked and screened) as federal guidelines state that visitors are crucial to the patients well being, and I don't disagree. We have not seen the devastating deaths like many other nursing homes, and none of the recent positive cases had ANY symptoms at all, none. We still test 2 x a week staff and 1 x week for residents. Our local area has a 7 day positivity rate of about 5%, no school shut downs, mask mandate still for stores etc (IL) and most places I see about 80% of people masking. Vax rates here are about 50%, those over 65 is closer to 90%.