St. Charles ER doctor talks of ‘desperation’ amid record COVID-19 admissions
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- A St. Charles Bend emergency physician shared what he called a "somewhat grim" message in a video he took outside the hospital's ER on Friday, amid a record influx of COVID-19 patients.
"We are seeing a higher number of people (with COVID-19) admitted to our hospital right now than we've ever seen in the entire history of this last four months during the pandemic," Dr. Nathan Ansbaugh said in a video posted to St. Charles' Facebook page.
"My goal is not to point fingers (or) scare everyone," Ansbaugh said, but "to communicate an honest, somewhat desperation" and to urge everyone to take the needed actions and "support the community staying open, staying safe."
The doctor noted he previously worked in epidemiology for the CDC and Oregon Health Authority as he urged, even pleaded "that people don't go out into large gatherings," practice the hand-washing hygiene and wear masks in public.
"We can do a better job," Ansbaugh said. "We can't control everything that happens."
In a subsequent post to the Facebook comment thread, Ansbaugh also noted that summer is already the busiest time of the year for the hospital, regardless of COVID-19
"Having even 11 COVID-19 patients is just the tip of the iceberg, with the real challenges not as readily visible beneath the surface," he wrote.
"11 patients with COVID-19 not only means increased PPE and resource utilization and 11 less intermediate care or critical care beds, but decreased availability of beds for non-emergent procedures, let alone emergent procedures, less beds available for the other patients including patients with trauma, heart attacks, strokes, other infections, longer wait times in the ED as patients in the ED await inpatient bed availability, longer wait times for results for labs, X-rays, CT scans, MRIs, etc as increased precautions have to be taken for a larger number of patients in order to keep everyone safe, etc."
"Finally, it is important to note that the Deschutes County COVID-19 case numbers reflect Deschutes County residents and do not reflect people who are diagnosed with COVID-19 but are visiting Central Oregon or are not permanent residents," Ansbaugh added.
"Yes, there has been a large number of COVID-19 cases amongst people visiting town from out of county or out of state," he wrote, noting that "it is easy to point fingers and be frustrated with everything. … We need to stick together as a community, think of our neighbors, friends, families, and model social distancing, good hygiene, and respectfully hold each other accountable."
