The number of COVID-19 patients being treated at The University of Kansas Health System is down today. 20 are hospitalized, down from 22 yesterday. Five patients are in the ICU, down from 6 yesterday. One patient is on a ventilator, same as yesterday, though five other patients who are no longer infectious are still on ventilators. 32 other patients are still hospitalized because of COVID-19 but are out of the acute infection phase. That’s down from 35 yesterday. Doctors are hopeful the health system has reached a “good equilibrium” on COVID-19 patients
KU Chancellor Dr. Doug Girod joined the panel today to update COVID-19 on campus. Chris Wilson, VP System Integration and Innovation also joined. The Update included news of a swab clinic starting on the KU campus and a new dashboard for the community to track COVID-19 cases.
Dr. Girod described the KU campus after four weeks as feeling like a summer session with the lack of the normal fall student and staff population. But he says that makes it a safe environment, especially with the high mask compliance rate both inside and outside. He says off campus compliance is another matter, as many student groups have been found to be violating the mask and social distancing rules, which could lead to disciplinary action. He admits it’s a challenge with off-campus partiers since there is no law enforcement role in compliance. He’s hoping a proactive approach with education will be best. Girod also explained how the school has transitioned from entry level testing to more targeted testing and described how KU is accommodating students who test positive and need to be quarantined.
Chris Wilson said after 26,000 entry tests, only three percent of the on-campus population tested positive for COVID-19. He says a new dashboard on the Protect KU web site has constantly updated data on the virus at KU and in Douglas County. It will include all data to date as well as the most recent seven days. He also announced a new drive- through swab clinic on campus will be opening today to serve those who need current testing with fast results. He’s confident all of the data collected will help lead to a safe semester.
Dana Hawkinson, MD, medical director of infection prevention and control at The University of Kansas Health System, answered a question about whether the active COVID-19 virus is being used in vaccine trials. He says it is not. He also explained why the medical community is concerned about the upcoming flu season, and how if it’s severe, it could overwhelm many hospitals already crowded with COVID-19 patients. He advises everyone to get a flu shot after October first, so the protection will last for the whole flu season. He also had advice for a husband and wife, both hospitalized with COVID-19, on how to safely be together when they return home. He said testing for COVID-19 is the only way to know how much is out there and to keep it from spreading.
Steve Stites, MD, chief medical officer at The University of Kansas Health System, says there has been great collaboration to help keep KU safe. He says when we keep each other safe we will get to normalcy a lot quicker. He reminded us that the pillars of infection prevention go with us wherever we are.
Thursday, September 17 at 8:00 a.m. is the next morning media update. We’re going to hear from the western edge of the scenic Flint Hills in Clay County and the county seat of McPherson County in Kansas when CEO of the Clay County Medical Center, Austin Gillard and Chief Nursing Officer at McPherson Hospital Beth Worden join us. They will join our Jodi Schmidt, Executive Director of the Care Collaborative … to tell the story of how the statewide clinically integrated network is helping fight COVID-19 in greater Kansas.
ATTENTION: media procedure for calling in:
The meeting is available by Zoom, both video and by phone. To join the Zoom Meeting by video, click https://kumc-ois.zoom.us/j/7828978628
Telephone dial-in Participants:
For those without Zoom, call 1-253-215-8782, meeting ID: 782 897 8628.
The feed is also available via TVU grid. The TVU source is UoK_Health and is being made available to all.
Feel free to send questions in advance to medicalnewsnetwork@kumc.edu.
