Lee Health counts 571 COVID patients on Tuesday; testing sites expanded

COVID numbers continue to surge in Southwest Florida hospitals. Emergency rooms are overcrowded and Healthcare workers are overworked.

Soon patients could end up staying in hallways or the cafeteria, as the situation worsens and cases continue to climb.

“The part that’s the most exhausting is that we are not seeing the relief at all,” said Heather Kingery, nurse manager in the intensive care units at Lee Health.

On Monday, Lee Health saw more than 1,200 patients in their emergency departments. Of those, 500 were COVID-related patients.

Nine people died on Monday and 128 people have died of COVID-related complications in the last 90 days. Since the pandemic began, 800 people have died in Lee Health hospitals.

On Tuesday, Lee Health reported 81 new COVID-19 hospital admissions since Monday, and 56 COVID-19 discharges. This brings the current total of patients isolated for COVID-19 to 571.

• 571 COVID-19 patients isolated in Lee Health hospitals (inpatient).
• Since Monday; 81 new COVID-19 hospital admissions and 56 COVID-19 discharges.
• 52 COVID-19 patients are on ventilators and 86 in the intensive care unit. Currently, 63% of Lee Health ventilators and 29% of ICU rooms are available for use.
• The current census is at 90% of staffed operational bed capacity.

Lee Health strongly urges everyone in the community age 12 and over to get vaccinated.

Doing so provides significant protection against serious illness even if you are exposed to the coronavirus, Lee Health said.

The need for beds continues to climb.

“Our hospitals are almost at capacity,” said Armando Llechu, chief officer of Hospital Operations at Lee Health. “Could we take another hundred 150 patients? Probably. Anything north of that I think we would start to create some different operational challenges.”

Challenges like where to put more hospital beds.

“Worst case scenario, that would be community room, cafeterias, spaces like that,” Llechu said.

Lee Health is expecting the surge to continue. Most of its hospitals are in Phase One of its surge plan.

That means patients in every possible treatment room, including an overload in the emergency department.

“We are seeing them come into our ICU and require breathing tubes within hours of arrival. We are seeing them on our max ventilators setting,” Kingery said. “We are turning them from their backs onto their stomachs for prone positioning, help their oxygenation but this is very physically demanding.”

Dr. Larry Antonucci, president and CEO of Lee Health said they can’t turn patients away.

But patients should only head to the hospital if it’s a true emergency. If someone just wants a COVID test, Lee Health is opening testing sites across the county to help accommodate for the need.

Lee Health is working with Curative, which operated the Century Link site, to open new test sites.