Could Benton County be punished for accepting COVID patients from other areas? | Editorial

Gov. Jay Inlsee’s announcement Thursday that the entire state soon will move to Phase 3 reopening is terrific news, but one metric could be problematic for Tri-Cities and it needs to be made more clear.

Inslee has scrapped his regional approach to recovery and has decided that once again it is up to each county to meet certain criteria in order to stay in Phase 3.

One of those factors requires larger counties like Benton and Franklin to keep admissions of new hospital patients to an average of fewer than five in a week per 100,000 people.

If that doesn’t happen, then it’s back to Phase 2 for us.

The concern is that Benton County has three hospitals and one of them — Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland — serves as a regional referral center for Eastern Washington.

That means Kadlec is a go-to hospital that accepts COVID patients from all over — not just Benton County.

In fact, at one point Kadlec was admitting the most COVID-19 patients of any hospital in the state, according to the Washington State Hospital Association.

The hospital was lauded earlier this month in a statewide news conference, where Cassie Sauer, chief executive of the state’s hospital association, said Kadlec was “an absolute model over the summer” for accepting transfer patients.

As of early March, Kadlec had admitted more than 1,600 COVID patients since the start of the pandemic, according to Reza Kaleel, Kadlec’s chief executive.

Trios Health Southridge Hospital in Kennewick also will take transfer COVID patients from other counties, so it is possible that Benton County’s COVID hospital admission numbers could creep up because of residents from other parts of Eastern Washington and even Eastern Oregon.

If that happens, it would be a shame if Benton County was pushed back to Phase 2 because our hospitals were helping treat COVID patients who live somewhere else.

We know COVID case numbers are based on where a COVID patient lives, but we aren’t certain about hospital admissions. Some clarity from the governor’s office on this issue is needed.

We imagine officials at other hospitals around the state might also have COVID patients from outside their own community, and those admissions might be enough to put their numbers over the acceptable limit for Phase 3.

That doesn’t seem fair when so much is riding on this particular metric.

With Inslee’s Phase 2, there was some wiggle room. Regions had to meet three of four goals.

But now, the only criteria for staying in Phase 3 are COVID hospital admissions and the number of new COVID cases. For larger counties like Benton and Franklin, those must be kept at or below an average of 200 per 100,000 residents over 14 days.

Miss either mark and it’s back to Phase 2 with more restrictions on indoor activities.

It seems reasonable, then, to consider where COVID patients are from.

Phase 3 is a big change from Phase 2. It allows indoor spaces like restaurants, movie theaters and fitness centers to be at 50% capacity instead of 25%.

It also allows outdoor events to be capped at 400 people or 50% capacity, and large venues can be capped at 25% percent or up to 9,000 people, whichever is less. This means fans in stadiums for Mariners games and other sporting events.

After a year without such fun, Phase 3 seems very close to normal. Nobody will want to slide backward.

So we all must be vigilant — perhaps now more than ever. The best way to stay in Phase 3 and keeping moving forward is to practice the safety measures that have guided us this far.

People must continue to wear masks in public. Wash your hands and keep your distance from others when out and about.

Most of all, get your COVID vaccine as soon as you are eligible.

If we all do our part, our COVID numbers will continue falling and perhaps we won’t ever have to worry about how many transfer patients might end up at Kadlec each week.

But just to be safe, we’d still like the governor to consider that Tri-City hospitals have gone above and beyond helping COVID patients, and that Kadlec, especially, has taken on patients from around the Northwest.

That extra effort should not be counted against Benton County when the time comes.

This story was originally published March 12, 2021 at 1:15 PM.