After diverting some emergency patients on Thursday night, Mount Nittany Medical Center’s emergency department began accepting ambulances again on Friday morning. But officials at Centre County’s only hospital said to “expect to see extraordinary measures continue to take place,” as a sustained surge in COVID-19 transmission impacts the local health system.
Dr. Upendra Thaker, the hospital’s chief medical officer, reiterated in a statement on Friday afternoon a warning that he and other Mount Nittany officials have been sounding for months: increasing COVID transmission levels have led to more hospitalizations, a situation exacerbated by difficulties discharging patients to long-term care facilities that are dealing with their own capacity constraints.
“As long as the high level of community transmission continues, we will have to take steps to address the issues that arise from the high volume of patients who are also requiring a high level of care,” Thaker said. “It’s not often hospitals have to take extreme measures like diverting ambulances, but this strain is a direct result of what’s happening in the community and the region. We will have to make operational adjustments to support continuity of care to the best of our ability.”
For now that means all elective surgeries requiring an overnight inpatient stay at Mount Nittany Medical Center may be postponed through next week; community members seeking emergency care can expect significantly longer wait times and visitations remain restricted.
“We understand that community members are frustrated with surgeries being postponed, having significantly longer waits for emergency services, and not being able to visit loved ones, said Tiffany Cabibbo, executive vice president for patient care services and chief nursing officer, said. “We wish this were not the case.“
As of noon on Friday, the 260-bed hospital had 59 COVID-19 inpatients, six more than on Thursday, with 10 in intensive care [+3] and eight on ventilators [+1]. The patients range in age from 21 to 87. Eighteen are fully vaccinated and 41 are not vaccinated.
In the first three days of December, Centre County has reported more than 300 new COVID-19 cases — more than the entire months of June and July combined.
Since mid-September, the medical center has had an average of 34 COVID patients each day, which hospital officials described as the longest sustained period of a high COVID census at any point during the 21 months of the pandemic.
“Things are as challenging as they have ever been during the past 21 months of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Thaker said. “Caring for COVID patients is like operating a hospital within a hospital. It takes extraordinary resources to operate at this capacity.”
On Thursday night, before the diversion was lifted, Southern Alleghenies EMS Council wrote on Facebook on Thursday night that ambulances were directed to go to the next closest emergency department because Mount Nittany was experiencing “an overwhelming number of patients seeking emergency care.”
Thaker noted, though, that many other regional hospitals are also facing high patient volumes and are forced to make operational changes.
Statewide, Pennsylvania reported more than 10,000 new COVID-19 cases and nearly 4,000 hospitalized COVID patients on Friday — both the highest totals since January.
Mount Nittany officials urged community members to get vaccinated, social distance, avoid large gatherings, wear a mask in public indoor spaces and wash their hands frequently.
“We are so grateful to and proud of our clinical staff who have worked under extraordinary circumstances for the past 21 months,” Cabibbo said. “Please know they are doing everything they can to continue to care for patients.”
