Paris, Tenn. – Henry County Medical Center Director of Pharmacy Paula Bell, shared with the Board of Trustees at Monday night’s meeting information about a new infusion therapy for COVID-19 patients and the COVID-19 vaccine.
HCMC has received around 20 doses of bamlanivimab for outpatient COVID-19 positive patients, and has used four doses of the new infusion therapy.
“Today, I received a phone call from one of the patients who received the new therapy, and she informed me she feels significantly better,” said Bell. “We are excited to offer this drug and it is available to the medical staff to prescribe on a first come, first serve basis. Additionally, we hope to receive the other outpatient therapy that President Trump received to offer to patients with mild to moderate symptoms to help them avoid becoming more severe. We hope to learn more about this soon. ”
The COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer is estimated to arrive at HCMC in around four weeks. Bell discussed several details about the vaccine to the board during her discussion including the establishment of a COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force to develop education for partners and the community along with protocols and phases for providing the vaccine starting with healthcare workers and medical staff. The vaccine is two doses and will not be mandatory, but encouraged for healthcare workers to take.
“This vaccine is not an experimental vaccine,” said Bell. “The vaccine has a 94.5% efficacy which is unheard of along with very few side effects. The FDA has approved the vaccine, and it is not experimental.”
Hospital CEO Lisa Casteel provided an update on COVID-19 statistics. Over the last seven days, Henry County has seen a 33% increase in new cases and a 37% increase of active cases. The current positivity rate is 22.4%. Currently all the COVID-19 available beds are full. For over a week, Casteel has sent a daily text to the medical staff about our bed availability and surgical capacity. Outpatient and inpatient surgical cases are reviewed on a daily basis to ensure we have the capacity to accommodate these patients.
“We are going to do the best we can to take care of you,” said Casteel. “But, as it has been stated, care may be delayed or delivered differently because of our resources.”
“Currently, we believe we can handle seven ventilator patients with the ventilators, staff, and supplies we have,” said Neely Ashby, Chief Nursing Officer at HCMC. “We do have contingency plans in place to work through our COVID-19 patients. To date, the most we have had on ventilators at one time has been five.”
As of the time of the board meeting, we have 23 patients in the Emergency Room with already nine testing positive. Our ER has 12 bays available with overflow created with cots. We have 18 COVID-19 inpatients.
“With the ER flow as it is, it sounds like we are going to surpass our resources very quickly,” said Board Member Kreg Kyle.
“Our ability to transfer to other facilities is very tight right now because beds are full across the region,” said Casteel. “Management of COVID-19 patients is becoming increasingly more difficult and will continue as we see people gather during the holidays. Pressure will continue as we manage sick patients, surgeries, and beds with our resources.”
Brad Bloemer, Chief Financial Officer, introduced himself to the board. He has been at HCMC for two weeks. He has served as CFO at several hospitals including Murray-Calloway County Hospital.
“I am excited to be back home,” said Bloemer. “My parents are from the Murray area and it is great to be back so I can be close to them.”
Bloemer discussed his evaluation of HCMC to date. Being in Tennessee is a huge disadvantage for any hospital because the state did not expand Medicaid. Most hospital closures have been in states which haven’t expanded. Currently, there are only 12 states in the country to not expand Medicaid. This impacts charity care and bad debts.
“We have a busy ER, outpatient surgery, and many services that other hospitals don’t offer,” said Bloemer. “This is positive because we are reimbursed more for outpatient services over inpatient services, which serves us well.”
Photo: Board of Trustees chairman Dr. Scott Whitby and Board Member Peggy Beasley listen to Bell’s report. (Tory Daughrity photo).