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For whatever reason it seems posters are talking past each other. I understand both the stress on one side and the genuine questions on the other. The person who noted above that Duke Raleigh and REX are in different 'hospital regions' than the one shown for Wake County has the key though, if that's true. It would mean that WakeMed affiliate hospitals would be the only, or at least the only major, facilities in the CAPRAC region, and I can definitely see "Big Wake" having the large majority of those patients. If it is true, color coding the regions by county on the DHHS site is very confusing. Are ALL UNC - affiliated hospitals one region regardless of location? And all Duke facilities in their own region etc? If so, they should be named by hospital group, not geographically. I know there are Novant facilities all over the state - are they all in one "region"? Is there a list of specific hospitals included in each region's stats?
I just don't understand what difference it makes, or why its of any importance for people with absolutely no real need to parse, or ability to understand the information or to have all the nitty gritty details. Its just ridiculous. We're in the midst of a damn pandemic. There's no need to understand or question every last detail.
Its the equivalent of some yahoo on June 7th 1944 questioning why more troops weren't landed at Omaha Beach instead of Utah Beach.
Last edited by Royal James; 12-12-2020 at 04:58 PM..
I just don't understand what difference it makes, or why its of any importance for people with absolutely no real need to parse, or ability to understand the information or to have all the nitty gritty details. Its just ridiculous. We're in the midst of a damn pandemic. There's no need to understand or question every last detail.
What's wrong with wanting to make an educated risk assessment for yourself and your family? I'm sorry but I can't take what WRAL says as gospel. I realize things are bad in parts of the country, but maybe things aren't as bad in my part of the country. The more local the better.
If hospitals are so crowded that I'll end up in a temporary hospital in a parking garage, then I'd want to know that. If hospitals are only full because they're continuing to do elective surgeries, i'd also like to know that.
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
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HouseBuilder, thank you for the work you do. I know hospital workers have been stretched to the max this year.
I have been following weekly updates by the chair of the ER at Arlington Hospital in Virginia. He gives great insight about what is going on in hospitals. It's not local, but I'm sure it's not too dissimilar from what is going on in hospitals here. His updates tell it straight like it is - sometimes hopeful, sometimes more grim. But in any case, it gives an inside look for those of us on the outside.
Maybe you are trying to be dramatic but that doesn't really sound that bad tbh
tbh, yes it does - hospital usually run near capacity. So that's over 100 beds taken by a new disease where it would normally be taken by strokes, heart disease, mental illness, etc. And that over 100 is still counting and continues to take away from other medical diagnosis even more as we go week by week. So in a fairly large hospital that's around 500 beds - yes, it's bad.
I’ll chime in. Worked direct Covid for months. In a different role, but still consult on that service from time to time now. It’s difficult to create new beds. They have to be ICU equipped to handle all of the high tech machines required for these patients. If you need ICU care for covid... you are super sick. You need the highest trained personnel caring for you ( ICU trained respiratory therapists and ICU trained nurses.) It takes a very long time to up train RNs and RTs to be able to work in the ICU. I would say it even takes a year of working in the ICU to even feel comfortable taking care of these patients. Tons of specialized coursework involved. You can’t just take a generalized RN or respiratory therapist and make them ICU trained in a crash course. So... creating beds is not the problem. It comes down to creating staff, which is a very difficult prospect. It’s true... this is the worst point in the pandemic so far. It’s projected to be even worse in the coming weeks. The covid units are definitely strained. There are protocols going forward if and when it gets worse. Doubling the amount of covid ICU inpatients within a 2 week time period is down right scary. Stay safe!
I’ll chime in. Worked direct Covid for months. In a different role, but still consult on that service from time to time now. It’s difficult to create new beds. They have to be ICU equipped to handle all of the high tech machines required for these patients. If you need ICU care for covid... you are super sick. You need the highest trained personnel caring for you ( ICU trained respiratory therapists and ICU trained nurses.) It takes a very long time to up train RNs and RTs to be able to work in the ICU. I would say it even takes a year of working in the ICU to even feel comfortable taking care of these patients. Tons of specialized coursework involved. You can’t just take a generalized RN or respiratory therapist and make them ICU trained in a crash course. So... creating beds is not the problem. It comes down to creating staff, which is a very difficult prospect. It’s true... this is the worst point in the pandemic so far. It’s projected to be even worse in the coming weeks. The covid units are definitely strained. There are protocols going forward if and when it gets worse. Doubling the amount of covid ICU inpatients within a 2 week time period is down right scary. Stay safe!
I just don't understand what difference it makes, or why its of any importance for people with absolutely no real need to parse, or ability to understand the information or to have all the nitty gritty details. Its just ridiculous. We're in the midst of a damn pandemic. There's no need to understand or question every last detail.
I'll give other reasons too.
If we knew that CAPRac did NOT include Rex, Wake Med, Duke Raleigh, Western Wake (and I'm probably forgetting some), then hearing CAPRac was at 80% ICU means something very different. 20% of a large # of beds is very different from 20% of 8 ICU beds at a small hospital with a large # of recent infections of unhealthier.
As to the "parsing" ... well, we are talking about 1 out of 20 of the US population has tested positive for the virus (and 1 out of 25 in NC). 3 out of 1000 have been hospitalized. 1 out of 1,000 have died.
But every single one of us have been asked/told/required to fundamentally change our lives. And some of us like to understand as best we can "Why?"
CAPRAC includes all the WakeMed campuses, as an FYI. It just excludes Rex and Duke Raleigh. All of the major hospitals in the area are approaching a critical level, will have to cut electives, and will be stretched to ICU capacity by beds and staffing levels over the next month. It is a big wave, not quite a Tsunami, yet. Folks need to distance, mask up, and use proper hygiene for this. The why, is if anyone needs to go to the hospital for any emergent reason, COVID or otherwise, they need a staffed and equipped bed to take care of them. The normal occurrence of heart attacks, strokes, diabetic episodes, COPD exacerbations, asthma attacks and allergic reactions, trauma, household accidents, mental health episodes, etc. are taking up beds competing with COVID. Electives to be cut include a lot of eye surgeries and orthopedic procedures for folks who are already suffering from morbidities. Oh, and a good chunk of nurses and other medical professionals are themselves out with a COVID positive (not just a quarantine) right now. It’s hunker in the bunker time. Mid January will be the peak. Medical professionals will get their first vaccine doses this week.
CAPRAC includes all the WakeMed campuses, as an FYI. It just excludes Rex and Duke Raleigh. All of the major hospitals in the area are approaching a critical level, will have to cut electives, and will be stretched to ICU capacity by beds and staffing levels over the next month. It is a big wave, not quite a Tsunami, yet. Folks need to distance, mask up, and use proper hygiene for this. The why, is if anyone needs to go to the hospital for any emergent reason, COVID or otherwise, they need a staffed and equipped bed to take care of them. The normal occurrence of heart attacks, strokes, diabetic episodes, COPD exacerbations, asthma attacks and allergic reactions, trauma, household accidents, mental health episodes, etc. are taking up beds competing with COVID. Electives to be cut include a lot of eye surgeries and orthopedic procedures for folks who are already suffering from morbidities. Oh, and a good chunk of nurses and other medical professionals are themselves out with a COVID positive (not just a quarantine) right now. It’s hunker in the bunker time. Mid January will be the peak. Medical professionals will get their first vaccine doses this week.
Are hospitals requiring employees to get the vaccine? If not, do most seem up for it?
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