‘This is entirely avoidable.’ Tri-Cities hospital getting pounded with COVID patients

One of the four hospitals in Benton and Franklin counties, Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland, was treating 44 patients for COVID-19 late last week.

“This is entirely avoidable,” said Reza Kaleel, Kadlec’s chief executive. “ ... We have access to a safe vaccine.”

The number of COVID-19 patients at Kadlec, the area’s largest hospital, had dropped into the teens in late spring but is climbing quickly again.

And Kaleel said he is concerned about burnout of staff nearly a year and a half into the pandemic.

People weary and discouraged by the ongoing pandemic are leaving the health care industry, not just at Kadlec, but across the state, he said.

But Tri-Cities hospitals could have a more difficult time recruiting more workers than hospitals elsewhere in the state.

The low vaccination rate could make the Tri-Cities area less competitive in attracting health care employees to allow care to be kept local and Kadlec to serve as a regional hospital, Kaleel said.

Kadlec has been turning away transfer patients from other smaller hospitals in the region due to lack of staff to safely care for them, he said.

The hospital’s intensive care unit is at capacity at the same time that other ICU’s in the Northwest also are experiencing high use, making it difficult at times to find a place to take intensive care patients unable to be treated in the Tri-Cities area.

Those include people who have had strokes or heart attacks or been injured in car crashes.

“And as these COVID numbers continue to rise, it only serves to crowd out our ability to care for many, many other issues that have now been exacerbated over the last year and a half due to COVID as well, unfortunately,” he said.

Younger, sicker patients

The surge in new COVID-19 patients comes as other patients being treated at the hospital tend to be sicker, said Dr. Kevin Pieper, Kadlec chief medical officer, speaking at a recent news briefing by the Benton Franklin Health District.

Many people put off health care treatment due to fear of being exposed to the coronavirus after the pandemic started, he said. Their conditions worsened as they delayed getting medical care.

The hospital is also treating younger patients with severe cases of COVID-19 than earlier in the pandemic, Pieper said.

The highest rates of infection in the Tri-Cities area are in people ages 20 to 39 and the hospital is admitting more COVID-19 patients who are younger than 50.

“These are predominantly unvaccinated people,” he said.

Over half of the Tri-Cities population has not received a COVID-19 vaccine, said Dr. Amy Person, health officer for the Benton Franklin Health District.

Just 48% of Benton County residents old enough to receive the vaccine are fully vaccinated, dropping to 41% of Franklin County, according to Washington state Department of Health data.

“Until we can see a higher percentage vaccinated, we are going to continue to have to contend with surging case rates, surging hospitalizations,” she said.

How Tri-Cities people can help

Kaleel is not only concerned about staff burnout, but also continuing to have the hospital in a “semi-lockdown” for visitors, with patients not being able to have the family members they want around them.

He also is concerned that if the vaccination rate does not increase, the coronavirus will have more opportunities to mutate as it is passed from person to person.

Current vaccines might not be as effective against new strains of the coronavirus, he said.

Early in the pandemic, the Tri-Cities community rallied to help.

Kadlec received help finding the face masks it needed before they were in good supply, and day after day community members donated meals for health care workers who were working long hours.

Health care workers need the community to rally again, this time to encourage more people who can be vaccinated to be immunized against COVID-19, Kaleel said.

“If there is any way that we can get our percentage of vaccinated folks in our community up, we know now from lots of evidence that it will make a huge difference in the health of our community,” he said.

He encourages people who are not yet vaccinated to talk to their doctor about the vaccine, rather than looking for information on social media or from politicians on the left of the right.

“Look at sources that follow science and figure out what’s right for you,” he said.

This story was originally published August 1, 2021 at 12:56 PM.