Hospitals Managing Surge Of COVID Inpatients

Hospitals, both local and nation wide, are working feverishly to manage the recent surge in coronavirus in-patients as flu season begins.

Already tired teams of disaster workers and first responders are getting ready to head back to the gulf coast to help with relief after hurricane zeta.

That's right after they got back from helping with hurricane delta!

The limestone "baptist relief team" is just one organization getting ready to head south from north alabama.

They'll work closely with other groups helping out to form a coordinated effort.

They expect to focus on clean-up - like tarping roofs and removing fallen trees.

Schools across north alabama are already responding to the threat of severe weather tomorrow morning.

We learned a total of 14 school districts will operate on 2 or 3 hour delays tomorrow.

As we get updates from more districts - we'll run them across the bottom of your screen - and post them on our website - waay tv dot com.

Huntsville is doing its part to help potential victims of this storm by opening a livestock shelter.

The alabama department of agriculture and industires opened a facility at "alabama a and m university".

The shelter is only for livestock - not dogs and cats.

Space is available on a first come - first serve basis.

Owners will need to bring their own feed and other necessities.

For all the latest updates on severe weather - as well as 24/7 access to the storm tracker early warning radar network - download the storm tracker weather app today!

Turning our attention now to the coronavirus pandemic.

The c-e-o of crestwood medical center said right now is a challenging time for hospitals.

There are currently more than a thousand coronavirus inpatients across the state.

That is up 176 since last week!

Inpatient numbers haven't been this high since august!

There are currently 162 coronavirus inpatients in the huntsville hospital health system.

40 are in the icu.

12 are on ventilators.

74 of all inpatients are in madison county.

34 are at decatur-morgan hospital.

20 are at marshall county medical centers.

16 are at athens- limestone.

And 13 are at helen keller hospital.

New this evening - we're learning more about how hospitals are managing that surge in coronavirus in- patients during flu season!

Today - the c-e-o of crestwood hospital says it is starting to see more hospitalizations after traveling and social events at the beginning of the month.

Waay 31's sydney martin joins us live in huntsville.

She learned how hospitals are handling the spike.

Doctor pam hudson - the ceo of crestwood hospital - told me the hospitals activated surge plans in march, when the pandemic began.

She said when there's a spike in cases - it puts pressure on the whole system.

Fortunatley - she said the supply chain for p-p-e has stablized since march - so they don't expect to run into a shortage.

But hudson explained one of her biggest worries is fatigue among doctors or nurses.

She said the pandemic led to long shifts and some employees to not be able to take time off.

Hudson also said during the current surge - hospital leaders are metting daily to make sure they are prepared and have a plan for staffing or hospital beds.

"most hospitals are reviewing their surge plan which is, we've already surged into most hospitals have covid specific units, that in the past we wouldn't have had patients in a special unit like that.

We're already i guess technically at a bit of a surge, but on a daily basis we are one discharge 2 discharges away from having to do something more strenuous than what are level 1, level 2 discharge plans are."

Now, hudson didn't go into detail about what the next levels of a surge plan look like - but did say that's on hospital leaders to manage and not on the community.

But she said we can all help health care workers right now by staying separate, santizing and wearing a mask to help keep covid cases and hospitalizations down.

Live in huntsville sm waaay 31 news.