University of Kentucky Hospitals continue admitting more COVID-19 patients, both adults and children, and warn that all health care systems are strained.
UK hospitals have seen more hospitalizations during this surge of new COVID-19 cases than before. Ashley Motgomery Yates is the UK HealthCare Chief Medical Officer for inpatient and emergency services.
She said it's hurting all health care systems.
“There's all the other people in Kentucky who also need us, right? If you have a car wreck, you want to come here to the level one trauma center and be cared for if you have a stroke, if you have cancer, and you need surgery if you have a heart attack, and you need to be seen,” Montgomery Yates said. “Those are parts of the situation that I think sometimes the general public doesn't understand.”
She said that medical staff has become more flexible as hospitalizations of sicker patients increase.
The people who are requiring extensive ventilator management, the people who are requiring support for other organ systems that are failing, and those people are very numerous,” Montgomery Yates said. “We're bringing them from outside hospitals every day.”
Interim Chief Medical Officer for the Kentucky Children's Hospital Lindsay Ragsdale said more children with COVID have also been hospitalized.
“Kentucky Children's Hospital really wants to be able to manage the capacity for all kids that need us; the resources for children in our state are scarce,” said Ragsdale.
Doctors are concerned flu season may further strain hospital capacity.