KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – The battle against COVID-19 has become a war of attrition, and one we may be losing locally.
At a press conference on Tuesday, officials with the three largest hospitals in the region said the ongoing pandemic has created a healthcare crisis in southwest Michigan.
The conference was held at W-Med as a means of appealing to the public to get vaccinated.
It’s partly the Delta variant, but also staff resignations and supply chain shortages, and health officials are less able to deal with the latest surge in patient loads. Officials say it’s resulted in increased health risks for everyone, no matter their ailment.
E.R. Director Dr. Scott Gibson at Bronson Healthcare says all patients face treatment delays, transfers and a greater risk of negative outcomes.
“This pandemic is now taking down our ability to provide standards of care that we’ve accepted over the last 10, 20 years,” Gibson said. “You can tell all of us got a little emotional up there, a few of us had some itches in our voice. And it wasn’t just that people are dying, it was that our health care system stability is threatened.”
He says burnout, risks of infection and a lack of community support has decimated their staff.
“My heart goes out to them, my appreciation goes out to them,” Gibson said. “Everybody in the community should give them a pat on the back. We were pretty good at that the beginning of this because it felt like a sprint, and everybody felt like they could take it. But it’s not a sprint anymore, it’s a slog.”
Bronson Healthcare Pediatrician Aaron Lane Davies says they have as many or more COVID-19 admissions as they have ever seen.
“Last week, 23 people, 23 members of our community, died from COVID in Bronson Hospitals, and that’s the highest number of deaths in the Bronson system since the beginning of the pandemic,” Davies said.
He says 25 to 30% of their COVID-19 patients are children.
Dr. Thomas Rohs at Ascension Borgess adds that their emergency room patients are also suffering delays in admittance, increasing their risks of complications.
They all say it’s essential that the community get vaccinated, mask up and avoid crowds, especially with the emergence of the Omicron variant.
— Copy Written by John McNeil —
