COVID-19 Patients Crowding Northeast Ohio Hospitals

CLEVELAND — Health officials have spent the past weeks warning Ohioans of the likely resurgence of COVID-19 as the holidays approach. But is the wave already rising in Northeast Ohio?

Fear of the omicron coronavirus variant, along with rising numbers of delta patients, has led Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, director of the Ohio Department of Health, to again urge Ohioans to get vaccinated. He has repeatedly stressed that Ohio's hospitals are stretched thin because of staffing shortages. Bed space is also at a premium across the state.

"Sadly, we continue to see an uptick in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations," Vanderhoff said during a news conference Thursday. He compared the current surge to previous peaks of COVID-19 waves.

In Northeast Ohio, according to Ohio Hospital Association data, approximately 20 percent of all hospital patients are COVID-19-positive. In the intensive care units, things are even worse, with 1 in 4 patients testing positive for the virus.

Current data shows Northeast Ohio hospitals facing similar tides of COVID-19 patients to January 2021, when the winter wave crested in the region. The vast majority of hospitalized patients are unvaccinated, according to Vanderhoff. In Northeast Ohio, approximately 90 percent of all COVID-19-positive hospitalized patients are unvaccinated.

University Hospitals officials said they have been seeing a record-breaking number of COVID-19 patients in recent weeks.

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On Thursday, Ohio officials confirmed more than 9,000 new COVID-19 cases among residents, the second-highest number of cases confirmed in a single day in the past three weeks.

"The last time more Ohioans were being treated for COVID-19 in hospitals was all the way back on Jan. 12," Vanderhoff said Thursday. The largest number of new cases and hospitalizations are coming from northern Ohio and specifically Northeast Ohio.

Surgery Delays In Northeast Ohio

On Friday, Northeast Ohio's three major hospital systems — the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals and MetroHealth — made a joint statement announcing their intentions to halt some elective surgeries to preserve bed space in their hospitals.

"We are committed to serving the urgent needs of our patients and community. Therefore, in the interest of maintaining high levels of quality and safety, Cleveland Clinic, The MetroHealth System and University Hospitals are voluntarily making adjustments to the scheduling of non-urgent surgeries at certain locations," the hospital systems said.

Here's what each hospital system is doing:

Cleveland Clinic

Will temporarily halt the scheduling of non-urgent inpatient surgeries requiring a hospital bed, with the exception of Euclid and Lutheran Hospitals. This policy will remain in place through at least Jan. 3, 2022. Essential and urgent surgeries, and outpatient surgeries not requiring a hospital bed, will continue to be scheduled.

"We will continue to evaluate our scheduled surgical patients as the pandemic continues," the Cleveland Clinic said in the statement.

University Hospitals

Non-urgent surgeries at the Cleveland Medical Center may be rescheduled. Urgent and outpatient surgeries will continue.

"University Hospitals continues to perform all types of surgeries and procedures at its community hospitals, although the situation is fluid and subject to change. University Hospitals’ physicians are seeing patients as they always have, and UH labs and testing centers are open," the hospital system said in a statement.

MetroHealth

Due to the high demand for inpatient care, some elective surgeries are being postponed to free up space in hospitals.

"We are also exercising other options, such as encouraging more use of our Hospital in the Home program, to meet the latest patient surge," MetroHealth said in the statement.

All three hospitals systems urged "everyone eligible to please get vaccinated."