Thread by @CathJSweeney

Saint Francis will be providing weekly information to the media — with the intent of informing the public — on COVID. As of now, 237 people are in the system with COVID. #okhealth We're getting a presser from them now.
Stream here:
newson6.com/videolivestrea…

Dr. Cliff Robertson, president and chief executive officer of Saint Francis Health System: If the trends continue, we will have to delay care for certain patients to make room for COVID patients.

We're going to hear from Dr. Ryan Parker, an emergency medicine doctor.

Parker: COVID patients at St. Francis are younger now. Average is 56. "That's a full greater than 10 years younger than our average patient back in the winter." We had a pregnant woman in her 30s die last week, a 40 year old man over the weekend. "It is very personal."

Parker: "We are seeing our normal amount of trauma, heart attacks strokes, in addition to the onslaught (of COVID patients)." That wasn't the case last summer, when there was a lull. We have a worsened shortage of not only nurses but also radiologists and other care providers.

Parker: We've treated people during natural disasters for tornadoes. This is different. "For us, this has become a slow-rolling mass casualty event." Our doctors, nurses, techs, paramedics, are all tired. "We've been doing this for 18 months... We are still in it." #okhealth

Robertson on whether St. Francis patients have been transferred out of state: We transfer among our own health system, such as our Muskogee facility to our Tulsa facility. We sometimes will to other systems. "I don't believe we've transferred any patients out of state as of yet."

Robertson is explaining that their hospital is seeing a surge in RSV in kids, despite it being summer. Here's a story on RSV I did recently that talks with OU and INTEGRIS about their children's hospitals stateimpact.npr.org/oklahoma/2021/…

Parker: We have seen breakthrough cases hospitalized. "Anecdotally, they are the immunocompromised people that have more risk factors." That is why it is starting to be recommended for immunocompromised people to get a booster.

Robertson on elective surgeries: "Frankly, there are scheduled surgeries and non-scheduled surgeries." Elective is a misnomer. It can mean a surgery that can be delayed a week, but at the cost of allowing the patient to remain in pain.

Robertson: Delaying non-emergent surgeries is a tool we can use but not one we're happy to. Last time, it "quite honestly created new issues for us." Delaying care comes at a cost to the patients' health. #okhealth

This graph of St. Francis COVID hospitalizations over time is wild.

Parker on vaccine hesitation: Most of my patients did the wait-and-see approach. "I see more of that than the very extreme fear and anger." Here's the thing — people often end up in the ER after bad decisions. We're here to help and educate them, not to judge them. #okhealth

Parker reiterating that during this surge, patients are younger than the first surge. The most largely represented group is the 18-54 range.

That’s a wrap