As the health system makes daily operational
adjustments and curtails services, emergency department visitors can expect to
experience longer wait time.
This week,
Mount Nittany Medical Center recorded the highest average number of COVID
positive patients during any time over the last 22 months of the pandemic.
Today, the
Medical Center is caring for 57 COVID patients ranging in age from 20 to 95.
The average number of daily patients in December is 61 and the total number of patients in December is 140.
Mount
Nittany Health continues to make real-time operational adjustments due to high
demand for care. Elective surgeries requiring an overnight stay and endoscopy
procedures are being postponed through January 5. Community members seeking care
at the emergency department can continue to expect considerably longer wait
times than normal, sometimes hours. In addition to operational adjustments, the
visitation policy changed on December 11 to one designated visitor per patient,
per day, between the visiting hours of 2:00 – 6:00 pm daily. The complete
visitation guidelines are on the patient information page of
mountnittany.org.
Tuesday
night, Mount Nittany Health’s Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy
Officer, Tom Charles, spoke to the Centre County Board of Commissioners providing providing insight into the region’s interrelated health system challenges.
“We’ve been
in a very challenging stretch because the level of COVID transmission in the
community has continued to be high,” says Charles. “We also continue to face
unprecedented challenges in placing patients who are ready for discharge to
less acute settings. We would not have nearly the magnitude of challenges that
we have if we were talking about the number of hospitalized vaccinated
patients. It is far and away the large number of unvaccinated individuals. Our
providers and staff, who have been at this with intensity for nearly two years,
are doing an incredible job, but they need a break.”
With the
dramatic surge in hospitalizations, especially in recent weeks, Mount Nittany
Health administration, physicians, and staff are uniting their fight against COVID
and ask the community to join them and do their part to help.
“The
current strain our hospital is experiencing is due to the high number of COVID
inpatients, many of whom are very sick,” said Mount Nittany Medical Center
Registered Nurse, and SEIU Chapter President Denelle Korin. “The
intensity of care needed to treat them is very high. It simply takes more
people and resources to get them well again. We will continue to work together
in the fight against COVID-19 in our community, but we need relief-- and we ask
everyone to do their part by getting vaccinated, masking, and social
distancing.”
Supported
by Mount Nittany Health, Centre Volunteers in Medicine (CVIM) will host a
"Super Saturday” vaccination event from 8 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. at
Mount Nittany Middle School. A limited number of time slots are still
available. Please make appointments through the CVIM website.
Mount
Nittany Health also continues to offer COVID vaccination opportunities for
community members, having provided 764 vaccinations on Wednesday, December
15th. Please visit mountnittany.org to register for a Pfizer BioNTech
vaccine or booster dose.
Importantly,
if you are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, or believe you have been exposed to
someone who is COVID positive, then please isolate yourself from others and
seek testing. Visit our patient information page of mountnittany.org to
learn more.