In late November, WAMC News spoke with Dr. Howard Fritz, Chief Medical Officer at Glens Falls Hospital. At the time, the Warren County healthcare provider was pushed to capacity with coronavirus patients, most of them unvaccinated, with numbers far higher than 2020.
In November of 2020, Glens Falls Hospital saw six coronavirus patients with no deaths. Last month, the hospital recorded 186 COVID-related hospitalizations and 23 deaths.
Dr. Howard Fritz:
Since that time, we've had a bit of a brief respite in general, with a transient decline in the total number of patients in house, dropping at one point to as low as maybe around 165. But once again, we're banging up against 200 total patients. From the COVID perspective, there is some good news. From that peak of 50 plus inpatients we had a steady decline down into the high 20s. But we're creeping back up again with 30 today and rumors of more to come, especially as we watch and wait for omicron.
Lucas Willard:
Has Glens Falls Hospital seen an effect already of Christmas parties and other indoor gatherings in the month of December, here?
Dr. Howard Fritz:
Not yet, but we are bracing for it. You know, we had a peak that occurred before Thanksgiving, we expect that there will be a peak around Christmas, after Christmas, and certainly around in after New Years as well.
Lucas Willard:
With omicron becoming more prevalent in New York State is Glens Falls hospital preparing for a surge on top of a surge? Omicron as well as delta variant cases?
Dr. Howard Fritz:
We're doing the best we can we have to take all comers at face value. And right now there is no immediate way to determine if one is omicron positive or a delta positive. Currently, to the best of our knowledge, we have not faced an omicron patient in our hospital. But recall that the state only samples positives, it doesn't test every single positive to determine the variant. But right now, to the best of our knowledge, we're all delta. And the big concerns are things we don't know yet. And we're just learning about. Is omicron going to be as responsive to vaccine as, responsive to monoclonal antibody therapy? We don't know that yet. But the bigger question is, is it something that may be fortuitous for our population? In other words, is it going to be, yes, infectious but lead to a milder illness, and basically a biologic dead end for the [virus as it becomes very prevalent] and it pushes the more dangerous delta out of the way. We don't know yet. That's something we're hoping for, but we just don't know. So we have to be prepared from a staffing perspective and from a therapeutic perspective, as best we can. And I'll give you an example of one of the things that that we learned a few weeks ago… Back at the time, when we had greater than 50 COVID patients in house, we literally had run out of beds in our COVID-positive units and in what are called negative pressure rooms. So in order to handle the influx of new COVID-positive patients, our construction-engineering team, in conjunction with nursing and with our infection prevention and control, and myself, literally, set up restricted access doors, and barrier walls to carve out a new COVID restricted unit out of a regular unit to keep our non-COVID patients safe. And to make sure that the nurses tending care, rendering care for the COVIDs were fully aware of that and of course, appropriately gowns, gloved mask etc., within a confined COVID space. If the next wave turns out to be that serious, I would certainly anticipate that we'll have to resort to something like that, again, in order to be able to protect the non-COVID patients and to give optimum care to those who are COVID-positive.
Lucas Willard:
How our staffing levels right now at the hospital?
Dr. Howard Fritz:
Like all the hospitals in the region, we continue to be challenged. We are relying as before on the availability of agency nurses to fill gaps. This is a tremendous drain on hospital resources for all of us in the in the region and across the country, wherever the nursing shortage is most particularly felt. So we're very grateful for the availability of the agency nurses who are helping us to meet our patient care needs. But it does come at a significant cost for fiscally-challenged hospitals and we're all challenged by the rigors of COVID and nursing shortages.
Lucas Willard:
There were reports this week of a young person in the town of Queensbury who passed away of COVID at age 18. Has the hospital experienced more younger cases in recent days, and has the hospital had to turn any patients away?
Dr. Howard Fritz:
There are several questions that you've asked there. So let me break that down. First, we are not a pediatric hospital, this young gentleman turned 18 on admission. Second, this patient did have a significant underlying risk that put him at high risk for progression, the disease and a poor outcome. We have not turned anyone away. If someone comes to our doorstep, comes to our intensive care unit, and meets criterion for admission, we do everything possible to care for them here, if it's appropriate, or to make arrangements to transfer them elsewhere, wherever we can find a bed. Everyone else has also been struggling to meet the needs, especially Albany Med, our primary referral hospital, has also had its own challenges in meeting, staffing and making services fully available. But their pre hospital transfer services director Dr. Daly has been a great resource for us and for other hospital regions, hospitals in the region, trying to get patients taking care of, if not at AMC, then in other regional or even extended regional hospitals to do the best to provide care. So nobody has been turned away. The care may not always be rendered here. But care is always rendered.
Lucas Willard:
How does Glens Falls hospital feel about the indoor mask mandate that was announced by Governor Kathy Hochul? There's a situation now where it's… the counties are at odds with each other or they're taking opposing sides on this issue. Some county leaders are welcoming the mask mandate, and others are saying it's unenforceable, it's unnecessary. What's the hospital’s position?
Dr. Howard Fritz:
I'm not aware that the hospital has issued a specific public statement about whether they do or don't endorse the mandate. But I will tell you that the clinicians endorse the mask mandate
Lucas Willard:
Has the reopening of the testing and vaccines center over at the Aviation Mall...has that had an effect? Do you think that that center will have an effect in mitigating the spread of the virus?
Dr. Howard Fritz:
Lucas, the first thing I want to do is thank you and your media partners for getting the word out. I'm very grateful to you for that. And yes, I do believe that it is beginning to and will have an impact over time. Since the media colleagues got that word out about how significant the issue was, the state has given out approximately 6000 vaccines at the Aviation Mall. Now recognizing that it takes two weeks for someone who's been vaccinated, presuming that they will respond, two weeks from the second dose, many of those individuals should be protected as we go through and reach towards the end of the holiday season. Again, I'm very grateful that you helped get that word out.
Lucas Willard:
I appreciate that. Do you think that there will be more people receiving the vaccine? Possibly, you know, up until Christmas Eve when people are ready to gather the following day? Do you think that there will be a slight uptick in the coming days?
Dr. Howard Fritz:
I can't predict the future. But gosh, I certainly hope so. And the fact that more people are receiving the vaccine at the mass sites suggests that maybe attitudes are beginning to change, recognizing that the number of COVID patients hospitalized and dying across the nation continues to climb. Sooner or later, everybody will know somebody who's been specifically, personally affected. And I think the more that it becomes real to folks who don't live this everyday as those in the hospital do, the more likely they will be to recognize, hey, we've got to do something to protect ourselves, our family, our friends, our neighbors, our loved ones, our co-workers. It's becoming real. And I think that the sign or the number of vaccines distributed is is proof of that.
Lucas Willard:
Dr. Fritz, do you have anything else to say to people who are witnessing something that's pretty frightening right now with the increase in cases, the reported deaths, the omicron variant, anything else to say to the community?
Dr. Howard Fritz:
We're all in this together. And we each bear personally no responsibility to take care of ourselves, but also everyone that we come in contact with. So, as I have mentioned in the past, even if you don't feel that taking the vaccine might be in your best interest because you don't believe in it for whatever reason, if you recognize that it may be helpful in protecting your loved ones and the people in the world around you, do it for them. Do it for them if you can't do it, or won't do it for yourself. And I'm very hopeful that we're beginning to change the mindset that more people will recognize that this is a real, true, bad disease, and that we can do things to protect ourselves and our families, our communities. So, again, let's use good sense. Common sense. Wash our hands, use social distancing appropriately, take the vaccines, stay in touch with your doctors, with your care providers, so that you're able to hear the latest word and do the most appropriate things and if it means a booster shot, then, gosh, go get it
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Note: Dr. Fritz misspoke regarding a "dead end" for the vaccine, intending rather to say a dead end for the virus.
