ST. GEORGE – Utah Sen. Don Ipson can’t think of anyone he knew who had been infected with COVID-19 over the summer.
That changed in the months from then to now. Ipson, R-St. George said he now knows several people who have hired him, who have been hospitalized and even some who have died from complications caused by him. Then, a few weeks ago, he toured the Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George, with some of his fellow lawmakers, and witnessed first-hand the problems hospital staff have to deal with to adapt to the needs of COVID-19 patients.
The tour opened his eyes, he said. Reflecting on Tuesday, he called it “humiliating” and “terrifying.” For him, he played close to home because two of his granddaughters work in the healthcare field just like the staff he saw taking him to work.
“That was pretty worrying for me,” Ipson said, recalling the tour. “Seeing the intensive care unit expand into the other areas, the other wings of the hospital and the statistics that use these beds today, what an amazing job the hospital has done to achieve that.”
Ipson was one of the few lawmakers in southern Utah to meet online for a virtual meeting with Dixie Regional Medical Center leaders, Intermountain Healthcare professionals and members of the media to discuss this. tour and thank the hospital staff for what they do on a daily basis.
During the nearly hour-long meeting, these lawmakers – Ipson; Senator Evan Vickers, R-Cedar City; Representative Walt Brooks, R-St. George; Representative Brad Last, Hurricane R; Representative Rex Shipp, R-Cedar City; and Rep. Lowry Snow, R-Santa Clara, spoke about their gratitude for front-line workers after the hospital tour and urged people to be careful during the Christmas holidays.
“We have to be careful when we head into Christmas Day that, you know, 30% of the places where this COVID is transmitted to other people are in our home,” Ipson said. “We need to protect our health in our home.”
Situation of COVID-19 before Christmas
His message came as the number of new COVID-19 cases continues to slowly decline statewide, but hospitalizations and test positivity rates remain too high for convenience.
COVID-19 cases across the state have not risen in the same way that public health experts feared after Thanksgiving, according to trends from previous holidays this year. Experts from the Utah Department of Health and Intermountain Healthcare have attributed the lack of peak in people following recommendations and limiting vacation meetings.
It is the same conclusion that Dr. Patrick Carroll, Dixie’s regional medical director, pulled data from southern Utah.
“We’re happy to see that the climb we were hoping for didn’t happen the way we thought,” he said. “That tells me we have a significant percentage of our population in southern Utah that did follow the recommendation of our government officials, our health care professionals and our local mayors.”
That’s not to say Utah is still out of the woods, which is why before Christmas there are similar recommendations about vacation meetings.
The seven-day average of the state of COVID-19 cases falls again when we enter Christmas. It went from 3,125 cases a day on December 6 to 2,478 cases a day as of Tuesday. That said, the state’s positivity rate remains high after going through a roller coaster of trends. It reached 27.2% on December 1 and fell to 22.2% on December 13 and then returned to 23.7% until December 16.
The other issue is that statewide hospitalizations, which show signs of slowing down, remain high. As of Tuesday, 544 people were admitted due to COVID-19, which includes 202 ICU cases. The use of ICUs in referral centers and in all hospitals across the state is still above the 85% threshold decided by state officials of health care providers, and this has been the case throughout December.
These numbers are not indicative of all hospitals. Carroll said there were 67 COVID-19 patients Tuesday at Dixie Regional Medical Center, which is another record set by the hospital since the pandemic began. The hospital also has 37 patients with ICUs, which has forced the hospital to use surge beds as its ICU has a maximum of 32 beds.
“We continue to look for ways to provide each patient with this care in the hospital, but we must also recognize that this is contingency care,” he said. “We don’t provide normal care to ICU patients in the normal place we would like to provide care.”
Last week, the hospital suffered an average of seven days above 2.5 deaths per day for COVID-19, Carroll added.
The Utah Department of Public Health in southwestern Utah, where the hospital is located, has reported 130 deaths since the pandemic began, the third-highest of 13 local health departments. Only Salt Lake County (515) and Utah County (198) have more. These deaths have been difficult for doctors and nurses, Carroll explained.
“When they have a patient, despite their efforts, despite trying everything they can, they see how a disease that has years of life left over from that disease happens, that’s harder than the high census; that’s harder than a lot of patients come in, ”he said. “We want to prevent devastating effects; we want to prevent death … Collectively as a society, we do so much better at preventing disease than when patients end up in the hospital.”
After addressing the skepticism of online COVID-19 deniers, the hospital offered representatives a tour of its facilities. Hospital officials also posted a virtual tour of the facilities on social media on Dec. 8, which aimed to show everyone the work they were doing and the situation inside the hospital.
Many of the representatives who toured the hospital agreed with Ipson and also called him “disturbing.” They thanked the health workers for their continued efforts.
“When you really see it and talk to the medical providers (the ones who work there) and find out how long we’ve had to take it in our community to provide for those who are sick and suffering from this, it’s superfluous,” Snow said. “And also, when you count the number of people we’ve lost in our state and southern Utah. Some of these represent people we know. It’s real; the pandemic has taken people’s lives and we have to keep watching. “
While representatives did not necessarily agree on issues such as ordering mask warrants, they urged people to follow guidelines such as wearing masks.
Snow, Vickers and Shipp said they have noticed a “change in climate and attitude” in the region as their largest hospital began to outpace itself. Many residents began wearing masks, physically distancing themselves, and canceling vacation meeting plans, however difficult it might be.
“I know through social media there are those who don’t say they are saying,‘ This is a violation of our freedom. That’s not so critical, “I’m glad most people aren’t listening to these things,” Shipp said.
Vickers also confronted some of the conspiracy theories floating about masks and hospitalizations he came across, which he noted can be easily discredited.
“It’s been frustrating, in many ways, to see the various theories with social media and other things,” he said.
Carroll said that if people follow public health guidelines and limit meetings for the holidays, he is confident it will help reduce COVID-19 transmission, leading to fewer coronavirus-related hospitalizations and deaths. This would be a big boost for “exhausted” hospital staff, although additional staff has been added to help increase new cases.
Vaccines underway
Of course, Tuesday’s online meeting came a week after hospitals began vaccinating front-line workers. Dr. Kristin Dascomb, medical director of infection prevention for the health of Intermountain Healthcare employees, said nearly 5,000 Intermountain employees have already received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
State health department data show the vaccine was administered to 326 people in the Southwest Utah Department of Public Health district.
While urging people to follow the guidelines to reduce the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the region, Ipson also said he expected people to get vaccinated once the vaccines are available to the public.
He said he is old enough to remember the problems with polio and measles, which were eliminated with the development of vaccines. That is why you plan to get the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as you make it available.
“It’s just one more step in trying to make the world healthier (and) to curb the pandemic,” he said. “I have a hard time understanding, in my own mind, why people wouldn’t want to get vaccinated. The science is there. They’ve tried it; it works. It would just encourage everyone to give it a lot of thought.”
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