Increasing COVID-19 Deaths Force AdventHealth To Expand Morgues

TAMPA BAY, FL — AdventHealth West Florida Division hospitalizations remain at the highest levels seen throughout the pandemic, prompting the hospital to add capacity to its morgues, hospital officials said Wednesday. Nevertheless, AdventHealth said none of its West Florida Division hospitals have reached the need for refrigerated morgue trucks at this time.

In fact, officials said they are starting to see a slight decrease in COVID-19 hospitalizations.

“We have a robust emergency management program, which has allowed us to continue to care for our community during this surge with thorough planning and precautionary measures," AdventHealth Tampa’s chief medical officer, Dr. Doug Ross, said. "With the spike of seriously ill patients in our hospitals, and the current strain and throughput issues with local funeral homes, it’s become necessary that we put resources in place to provide additional morgue capacity at AdventHealth Tampa.”

AdventHealth is currently caring for more than 600 COVID-19 patients overall at its facilities across the West Florida Division, most of whom are unvaccinated. AdventHealth Tampa currently has approximately 115 of those COVID-19 patients.

"The delta variant of COVID-19 is very different than the strain we saw in our community last year," Ross said. "This variant spreads more rapidly and affects a younger group of people in their 50s, 60s and 70s, who may or may not have underlying health factors. We are seeing otherwise healthy people become seriously ill from the virus, and the majority are unvaccinated. We continue to urge people to get vaccinated to protect themselves and their community.”

AdventHealth Tampa continues to pause elective procedures that are not urgent to increase beds, resources and ensure there's enough staff. Patients will be notified if their procedure will be canceled.

AdventHealth Carrollwood, AdventHealth Dade City, AdventHealth North Pinellas, AdventHealth Sebring, AdventHealth Wesley Chapel and AdventHealth Zephyrhills paused either some or all non-time sensitive and non-emergent procedures.

All AdventHealth West Florida Division hospital locations will continue with urgent surgeries.

Ross said the hospitals are designed to create flexible and expandable spaces for patient care.

"We are available to quickly and safely convert existing spaces in the hospital into standard patient rooms or ICU/critical care rooms should they be needed due to increased demand," he said.

All AdventHealth West Florida Division hospital locations in Tampa Bay and Sebring are currently limiting visitors. The limitation of visitors applies to the following locations:

• AdventHealth Carrollwood
• AdventHealth Dade City
• AdventHealth North Pinellas
• AdventHealth Sebring
• AdventHealth Tampa
• AdventHealth Wesley Chapel
• AdventHealth Zephyrhills

The public can find specifics for each location by visiting each hospital’s website.