Mid-Missouri COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to fall, opening capacity in health systems

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

After months of hospital capacity concerns across Mid-Missouri, health care systems are reporting a decrease in hospitalizations amid the COVID-19.

SSM Health St. Mary's in Jefferson City reported treating zero positive cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday afternoon, with 3 patients under investigation.

Vice President of Medical Affairs Dr. Lenora Adam said it is pretty much "business as usual" in regards to hospitals' capacity and admissions, saying they have even seen a decrease in flu and other admissions.

"It's nice to be able to breathe a little bit, but now it's different," Adams said. "Now we are worrying about how to get the vaccine out to as many people as we can as quickly as possible... There's always something new with the pandemic."

While there are no positive cases, the system is still currently treating some patients suffering from the effects of COVID-19 after they had an active infection with the virus.

"Unforuantally, I foresee that this will continue to place increased demands on the health systems around the country," Adams said. "There's many people who persistent symptoms for more than 12 weeks."

SSM Health has scaled backtesting for the virus because of a decrease in demand and will be relaxing visitor restrictions next week. Adams said instead of only allowing one visitor per day, the hospital will allow one visitor per patient at a time.

Adams attributed the decrease in cases to the community following the health recommendations in the area.

Capital Region Medical Center in Jefferson City reported six COVID-19 positive patients as of Tuesday afternoon, reminding citizens to stay vigilant even though hospitalizations are going down and vaccines are going up.

We do remind people that although our number are trending in a positive direction and we are giving more vaccines, to please remain diligent to stay away from others if you are sick, wear a mask when you are not able to social distance, practice good hand hygiene and avoid large crowds.

Lindsay Huhman, Capital Region Medical Center

Chief Nursing Officer for MU Health Care Mary Beck said the system admitted 15 new COVID Patients Tuesday, and 13 on Monday. She said in the past weeks it been about 20-30 patients some days.

"We really are seeing a steady decline in the number of patients that are coming to us because they have COVID-19," Beck said. "Overall it's really great for our community and our region."

Beck said the rate of positive cases per 1,000 people for about 25 counties surround Boone is at 3.77 cases. It's a little bit higher in Boone County at 6.96, but she says this shows that cases are slowing down.

"In November and December, we were in double digits," Beck said, saying she believes that people have been following mask-wearing guidance and avoiding large group gatherings.

MU Health Care's capacity for non-COVID patients has increased, Beck mentioning the hospital has not had to put anyone on a waitlist for the past 2 weeks.

While cases and hospitalizations are trending downward, Beck said the incident command structure is still running but has cut back the number of meetings.

"But we can turn on a dime, we know how we need to scale up, scale back... we've done it several times," Beck said.

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