Pa. health leaders worried hospitals could be overrun if we can’t get COVID-19 under control

ALLEGHENY CO., Pa. — COVID-19 cases are at all-time highs across Pennsylvania, particularly in Allegheny County, and more patients than ever are in need of urgent care.

That is causing the focus to return to hospitals, as models tracked closely by the Pa. Department of Health predict resources could become scarce in a matter of weeks.

One of the biggest concerns is the recent surge could cause hospitals to be overrun. Dr. Rachel Levine laid out that possibility playing out in the next month if changes aren’t made.

“Right now, we have up to 7,000 new patients per day. They are projecting unless things change, which is why we’re doing these mitigation efforts, that we could have up to 20,000 or more,” said Levine in a press conference on Monday.

Those efforts include a statewide stay-at-home advisory and limits of 500 people for indoor events and 2,500 for outdoor events.

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According to the Pa. health department, every county in our region is seeing its highest level of coronavirus-related hospitalizations since the early days of the pandemic.

While acknowledging the spike in cases is concerning, the lead medical directors at UPMC and Allegheny Health Network told Channel 11 they are working together and have plans in place to handle additional surges.

“We have a lot of capacity to expand our ICU beds, our ventilator capacity and our regular nursing board capacity which we are doing,” said Dr. Donald Whiting, with AHN.

Dr. Donald Yealy, with UPMC, said they have planned for much more demand and that they’re smarter now regarding using each resource.

If hospital bed availability drops below 10%, staffing shortages become an issue. If hospitalizations surge by 50% in 48 hours, health officials said they will require elective procedures to be cut in half.

That decision would be made by region, but Levine said there is no part of the state near that level at this point.

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