LAKE ST LOUIS, Mo. — It’s a huge milestone for SSM Health St. Joseph Hospital - Lake Saint Louis. Hospital officials announced Monday they had no COVID-19 patients in-house Monday.
The hospital said it’s quite the improvement from four months ago when it had an emergency room patient overflow tent outside the department to help manage the influx of patients coming in. Many of those patients were COVID-19 positive or experiencing the lingering effects of the virus.
SSM Health St. Joseph Hospital - Lake St. Louis was one of many hospitals that dealt with staffing and spacing shortages, especially during the peak of the pandemic.
"We did it, we made it to a day that we have no active infections," Elaine Stearn, the manager of the ICU and stepdown units, said. "We had days where we had every patient on a ventilator. We lost so many patients. We listened to families say goodbye over iPads, we were holding hands with patients as they passed away. It was devastating."
Marcia Key lived through that devastation.
COVID-19 hit her on March 28th.
"I was in a coma the whole time, on a ventilator, the next time I woke up, they told me the next day was going to be Easter. I didn't think I was going to make it out of there," Key said.
That's why this news gives her hope and motivation.
"That's a long way to come from a year because when I was in there, all I heard when I woke up was 'Code Blue, Code Blue, Code Blue' and to now hear there's no one in those units, man, we came a long way," Key adds.
On Monday, the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force reported the lowest number of hospitalizations across area hospitals since July.
The following data are the combined figures from the four major health systems (BJC HealthCare, Mercy, SSM Health, St. Luke’s Hospital) that are part of the task force, for March 22.
- New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased - from 27 yesterday to 21 today. There were 41 new hospital admissions on Saturday.
- The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased – from 35 yesterday to 34 today. The seven-day moving average was 37 on Saturday.
- The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations decreased - from 234 yesterday to 231 today. It was 234 on Saturday.
- Inpatient confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations decreased - from 219 yesterday to 215 today. There were 225 confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations on Saturday.
- Inpatient suspected COVID positive hospitalizations decreased – from 19 yesterday to 18 today. There were 29 suspected COVID positive hospitalizations on Saturday.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients in the ICUs decreased – from 58 yesterday to 55 today. There were 59 confirmed COVID positive patients in the ICU on Saturday.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators decreased – from 38 yesterday to 37 today. There were 36 confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators on Saturday.
- The number of COVID deaths increased – from 5 yesterday to 8 today. There were 3 COVID deaths on Saturday.
- The seven-day moving average of COVID deaths increased from 2 yesterday to 3 today. The seven-day moving average of COVID deaths was 2 on Saturday.
- Across the system hospitals, 107 patients have been discharged over the last 3 days, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 20,199.
- Today, staffed bed hospital capacity is at 78%, an average across our task force hospitals. The ICU’s are at 74% of their total staffed bed capacity.
The reduction of COVID-19 cases in hospitals is a growing trend in the St. Louis area.
Less than a week ago, the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force announced that more than 20,000 patients had been discharged from the hospital since the pandemic. That’s about 50 patients discharged per day. Dr. Alex Garza, the incident commander of the task force, called it a "momentous day".
In addition to that milestone, Dr. Garza said there are other reasons to be positive about the future as well, including several vaccination events scheduled in our area in the near future.
With the planned increase in events, the task force has moved up its best guess for when the region will reach herd immunity. The new update shows the St. Louis area could reach the 75% vaccination mark in early July if the region continues on the current pace of about 69,000 doses per week.