Harford County Hospitals 'Full To The Gills' Amid COVID-19 Surge

BEL AIR, MD — One Harford County health leader says hospitals are “full to the gills.”

Upper Chesapeake Health CEO Lyle Sheldon told elected officials Tuesday that coronavirus patients have surged in recent weeks in Harford County’s two hospitals. He gave two similar reports, one before the Bel Air Board of Town Commissioners and another to the County Council, in which he sounded the alarm about the rising number of coronavirus patients in Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air and Harford Memorial Hospital in Havre de Grace.

After the holidays, hospitalizations ticked up at an alarming rate, Sheldon said.

“We’re literally full to the gills at both our hospitals," Sheldon told the Bel Air Board of Town Commissioners in a briefing Tuesday afternoon.

"We just don’t have additional capacity," Sheldon said. "We’re doing a lot of creative things, but there’s just so much demand."

Patients were being put in hallways to handle the surge, he said, as both hospitals were full.

"Over the weekend, literally, there was not an empty ICU bed in the state of Maryland," he told leaders in Bel Air.

Harford County has 61 coronavirus patients, Sheldon told the County Council Tuesday night.

Three weeks ago, Sheldon said there were 20 coronavirus patients in Harford County.

For context, he noted, Upper Chesapeake Health had 71 coronavirus patients in January. That was before the COVID-19 vaccine was widely available.

"These COVID numbers are exploding around us," Sheldon said.

Long lines should be expected in the emergency room, since hospitals are short-staffed due to the number of people seeking care, as well as the "great resignation" and quarantine protocols that have resulted in staffing shortages nationwide.

“They’re brokenhearted and they’re overwhelmed right now,” Sheldon said of health care workers. "It's a health system across the state across the country that is being challenged right now."

There are 1,151 coronavirus patients in Maryland hospitals, state heath officials reported Wednesday.

Gov. Larry Hogan announced the state health department on Wednesday was ordering hospitals to take actions at certain thresholds.

When there are 1,200 COVID-19 patients, Maryland hospitals should reduce non-urgent surgeries that would result in an overnight stay, in an attempt to make all bed capacity available.

At 1,500 patients with COVID-19, hospitals must implement their pandemic plans, officials said.

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