Key points from today’s guests:
Dr. Steve Stites, chief medical officer, The University of Kansas Health System
- A year ago when we had this chief medical officer forum, we had 51 COVID patients in the Health System, then bottomed out to three in July. Today, we’re at 23 cases.
- Compared to where hospitals were at the height of the pandemic, this is obviously a lot better. But COVID is not completely gone.
- Vaccines are extremely important. It is concerning hearing about parents who do not get their children vaccinated.
- Many people who are not old enough haven’t had to live with the outcomes of not having vaccines for diseases like polio.
- I can't tell you how much I appreciate the work of this group of chief medical officers and their health systems and hospitals that they represent throughout the pandemic.
- We're often competitors. But at the end of the day, we're all rowing against the same disease and trying to improve the health of our community and working together to help keep you healthy -- and that is the heart of medicine.
Dr. Lisa Hays, chief medical officer, Advent Health
- There have been spikes of COVID patients after the holidays, but generally the numbers have been much better.
- Supplies have gotten better, but some are still hit and miss.
Dr. Sheryl Beard, chief medical officer, Ascension Via Christi Health
- COVID numbers are fairly low and it has had no differences in staffing.
- Taking transfers is difficult due to the high regular patient volume, but we do our best to accommodate regional hospitals with transfers.
Dr. Kirk Sloan, chief medical officer, Lawrence Memorial Hospital
- We are hopeful the trend of lower COVID numbers continues to improve.
- We are headed back to normal, especially with the student population, who is more educated about these types of viruses.
Dr. Chakshu Gupta, chief medical officer, Liberty Hospital
- COVID numbers have been fine, but what is a little concerning is the rise in influenza patients.
- Numbers had been at about 8 percent positivity for several weeks and now they are at 20 percent positivity.
- When it comes to long COVID, I think the most important thing, because it's directly impacting the community is to ensure that they vaccinate and the mask because the symptoms of long COVID, which do affect a subset of patients that do get COVID, can linger on for months to years.
Dr. Angela Myers, division director of infectious diseases, Children's Mercy Hospital
- We’ve had five children admitted to the hospital with COVID over the past few weeks, and we’ve also seen many influenza and RSV patients.
- Next year with more RSV vaccine availability, it should really help with our RSV numbers. Research showed that reduced hospitalizations by 80 percent, which is huge for young children.
- We have a very wonderful infection control program here for all of the children who are admitted with respiratory illnesses and are obviously in isolation -- we are wearing all of the PPE to protect them, to protect ourselves, and protect the rest of our patients.
- Vaccination for all diseases is important. We just recently had an adult with measles in the community who exposed young children who are too young to be vaccinated and we needed to try to provide post-exposure prophylaxis to those infants.
Dr. Kelly Rhodes-Stark, chief medical officer, The University of Kansas Health System, Olathe
- We saw a spike in COVID cases during the start of colder weather, but it has decreased.
- We continue to educate patients and family members about the dangers of COVID for vulnerable populations.
Dr. Bill Gilbirds, chief medical officer, St. Luke’s Health System
- Although wastewater testing for COVID is showing decreased levels, they’re still higher than last summer, so we’re paying attention.
- Masking continues to be an option at the hospital in most areas.
Dr. Kevin Dishman, chief medical officer, Stormont Vail Health
- With the triple challenge of COVID, influenza, and RSV, we’re emphasizing the importance of prevention.
- After a rise in activity of those viruses, we have seen numbers start to decline.
Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of Infection Prevention and Control, The University of Kansas Health System
- This week, the COVID count is at 23 active inpatients, up from 16 active inpatients last week.
- COVID, especially for the severe and hospitalized patients, continues to be more of a disease of those most at risk.
- A recent study estimated that nationally we could have saved up to 850,000 hospitalizations and over $170 billion if we had better use of Paxlovid.
- Vaccines have been shown to be safe and effective.
Friday, February 2 at 8 a.m. is the next Morning Medical Update. Hear an amazing story about a woman who donated a kidney to her friend who she met at a national conference. The kidney was for her daughter who suffers from the same kidney disorder.
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