Doctors took a deeper dive into the numbers today to help the community better understand the rate of infection and virus spread. For example, Dr. Dana Hawkinson, Medical Director of Infection Prevention and Control said while acute, contagious COVID-19 patients at The University of Kansas Health System today number 28 with 11 in the ICU and 6 on ventilators, there are another 25 patients no longer contagious but still in need of hospital care … 3 of whom are also on ventilators. This makes 53 total patients and with 14 on ventilators due to COVID19. During the Morning Media Update, doctors have shared the number of acute patients each morning. Doctors also shared that since the beginning of the pandemic, the number of people seeking help at The University of Kansas Health System is increasing and there is a change in the age of people getting sick as well as an increase in the number of patients without any co-existing disease. Compared to the beginning of the pandemic, more younger people are getting COVID19 and the number of people without any co-existing illness getting sick from COVID19 is three-times greater than in April or about one in every five people.
Dr. David Wild, VP of Performance Improvement at The University of Kansas Health System and Dr. Erin Corriveau, Deputy Medical Officer, Unified Government Public Health Department both shared graphs depicting the COVID19 story in the community by race, sex and age including deaths.
Dr. Wild shared a graph showing that early in the pandemic, of all patients who sought care at the health system African Americans were impacted more than any race at 41.5% with Caucasians at 32%. By July and August, 38% of the patients seeking care from the health system were Latinos which doctors explained shows how the virus spread initially. Dr. Wild also shared two graphs showing admissions compared to discharges since the pandemic began and both slides looked very similar. Dr. Wild said, “The number of patients that we’re admitting every day is increasing and our discharges are increasing at a similar rate.” He said this speaks volumes about the rate of transmission in the community. “There are more people getting ill. There are more people needing to come to the hospital and that’s more people having an impact on the healthcare delivery system,” Dr. Wild warned. “More people are hitting the hospital everyday needing help … even more than in April.”
Dr. Erin Corriveau shared concerns that the rate of disease in Wyandotte County is high in comparison to surrounding counties. And while the rolling average of deaths and infection rates are declining, Dr. Corriveau remained only cautiously optimistic adding the rate of testing has also slowed with a 19% positivity rate which is higher than expected. She said the take-away is that if you feel symptoms of COVID19 or have been in contact with someone who is COVID19 positive, please get tested and quarantine while you wait for results. Dr. Corriveau said Wyandotte County can typically return results within 36 hours. Dr. Corriveau also commented on the health order for Wyandotte County schools.
Dr. Steve Stites, Chief Medical Officer at The University of Kansas Health System shared some of his conversation with Dr. Deborah Birx, Coronavirus Response Coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force who was at the Kansas University Medical Center over the weekend. He said Dr. Birx warned the heartland which includes Kansas and Missouri is about to become the next Southeast. Dr. Birx pointed to counties with poor mask wearing and lots of social gathering with schools reopening including colleges. Dr. Sites echoed Dr. Birx recommendation for mandatory mask wearing and limiting groups to ten or fewer, no travel except for necessities such as grocery stores and opened businesses with limitations. Dr. Stites said we all need to practice freedom with responsibilities and work to keep one another safe. Dr. Stites ended by sharing a video of nurse Becky Williams who has cared for patients who died of COVID19.
Tuesday, August 18 at 8:00 a.m. Robert Thompson, Chief Executive Officer of Clinical Reference Laboratory teams up with Chris Wilson, VP of system integration and innovation at The University of Kansas Health System to talk about saliva testing.
