By Carol Vaughn —
The “vast majority” of COVID-19 patients at Riverside Shore Memorial Hospital have been related to outbreaks at the Shore’s two poultry processing plants, according to a Riverside official.
While other Riverside hospitals are starting to see a decline in COVID cases, “the one area that we are seeing some increase in is on the Eastern Shore of Virginia,” said Dr. Mike Dacey, president and chief operating officer of Riverside Health System, in a May 8 briefing.
“The people at Riverside Shore Memorial Hospital, they’ve done a tremendous, tremendous job taking care of those patients,” he said.
The Eastern Shore as of Thursday reported 777 cases, with 38 having been hospitalized, and 14 deaths from COVID-19.
Accomack County has had 593 cases and Northampton has had 184 cases, according to the Virginia Department of Health.
Of the total, 472 cases, and 27 among healthcare workers, are related to nine outbreaks on the Shore — four in long-term care facilities, which includes group homes as well as assisted living and nursing homes, and five in congregate settings.
The hospital started seeing an increase in COVID patients several weeks ago, after outbreaks in the two poultry plants and a long-term care facility, Dacey said in an interview this week with the Post.
MiMi Sedjat, executive director of Eastern Shore Community Services Board, told the Post two behavioral health residences are long-term care outbreak sites: one in Accomack County and one in Northampton County. Heritage Hall is a third, and the fourth is thought to be Shore Health and Rehabilitation in Parksley, which, according to documents obtained by the Post, last week notified staff and residents of two cases at that location. The department of health defines an outbreak as two or more linked positive cases.
Riverside responded by devoting more resources to its Eastern Shore hospital, including sending additional ventilators and other equipment, and by sending some patients to another hospital.
Riverside Shore Memorial Hospital has 52 beds, including a six-bed intensive care unit.
“These patients, once they come into the hospital, they stay in the hospital a long time, so thinking and knowing that it wouldn’t be long before a relatively small hospital exceeds its capacity, we started in a proactive way to transfer patients over to the medical center in Newport News,” Dacey said.
The average hospital stay for COVID patients is more than 10 days, he said.
Most COVID patients have remained at the Shore hospital, but about 25 were transferred to Newport News by helicopter or ambulance, and a few of those have died, Dacey said Monday.
On Sunday, Shore Memorial Hospital had in its census five confirmed COVID patients and seven awaiting test results.
“We have seen the number of cases over the last three days remain the same at the hospital; they haven’t increased,” he said.
Riverside officials have not had “any kind of discussion with the poultry plants” about treatment protocol for plant employees, according to Dacey.
“We’ve reached out to them several times; they haven’t called us back,” he said.
A Perdue chief medical advisor in an email to Eastern Shore Rural Health detailed CDC recommendations related to when sick workers can go back to work, according to Dacey and a Washington Post article.
“Our doctors will make their own decisions about that,” Dacey said.
One ward of Riverside Shore Memorial Hospital is dedicated to COVID patients not sick enough to require intensive care.
“We think we have been proactive, and we think things have gone well, but if the hospital were not part of a larger health system, it certainly would have exceeded its capacity,” he said.
Dacey said the staff remain in good spirits.
“I was over there twice last week, and I think the morale of the staff there is very good. They are doing an excellent job to take care of patients under difficult and unusual circumstances.”
A patient coming to the hospital with COVID symptoms can expect to see healthcare workers wearing more protective equipment than usual.
“Most patients with this don’t need to be admitted to the hospital, but when they come to the emergency department with fever or particularly respiratory symptoms” they will undergo a physical examination and be tested, Dacey said, adding, “Depending upon their stability…if they are able to be sent home in isolation, they are.”
Test results are coming more quickly than a few weeks ago, typically after 24 to 36 hours.
For patients who require hospitalization, videoconferencing and telephone are used to communicate with family members, who are not allowed inside.
Riverside doctors, in response to doctors’ experiences treating COVID elsewhere, are tending to try to keep intensive care patients off ventilators and instead treat them with very high-flow rates of oxygen, which has proven successful in Italy, New York, and other places.
“As you know, there is no specific treatment for COVID-19,” Dacey said.
While remdesivir has been shown to lower the number of days patients spend in the hospital, few hospitals have access to the drug.
“It’s a complete failure of the federal government, because right now, there is enough of that drug to treat 180,000 people across the country, and for some reason that escapes anybody’s understanding, the FDA has decided to give that drug just to 25 hospitals,” he said, adding that after an outpouring of complaints, the government is trying to correct that.
The mortality rate for COVID-19 is “several times that of seasonal influenza,” but the exact rate not yet known. Still, “the vast, vast majority of people who get this disease do very well and live,” Dacey said.
“I think the biggest misconception is that hospitals are overwhelmed, and, outside of New York City, that’s not the case,” he said.
