WASHINGTON, N.C. (WITN) - North Carolinians continue to get sick with the COVID-19 virus. As of Monday afternoon, the state had more than 2,200 people in hospitals throughout the state.
That makes today the fifth record day in a row for hospitalizations in the state. With this increase, local rural hospitals are filling up and hoping a vaccine will reduce their numbers soon as resources stretch.
Washington Regional Medical Center is Washington County’s only hospital and employees continue to educate residents about good hygiene, keeping a distance from others, and wearing face masks.
Dr. Amanze Ugoji is the medical director at Washington Regional. He says the area has a 30% increase in cases since last week, and hospitalizations keep increasing. December is their most significant patient intake so far. They say they’ve increased staffing, ordered extra personal protection equipment to last at least for the next two weeks, and they have plans to provide more patient beds.
Dr. Ugoji says they’re already at capacity, and they could end up sending patients to other health care facilities if the case numbers keep rising.
“And then what happens at that point is we’ll have to transfer them out from the ED because we have no beds to accommodate them locally,” said Dr. Ugoji.
Despite the growing concern of increased patients, Washington Regional Medical Center leaders say they are confident they can provide treatment to the patients currently in their care.
The hospital also brought in more machinery and ventilators to accommodate patients with severe needs.
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December 08, 2020 at 08:05AM
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Rural hospitals concerned about caring for record number of patients as COVID cases rise - WITN
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