ST. LOUIS — Saint Louis University Hospital said for the first time since the middle of 2020, there are no COVID-19 patients on ventilators.
The use of ventilators takes a lot of manpower and hospital resources. Delores Griffin, the director of respiratory care at SLU Hospital, said for each patient on a ventilator the hospital must put the patient in an isolation room that uses special air filters, and staff members have to use more PPE. The last time the hospital had no patients on ventilators was June 28, 2020.
Having no patients on ventilators means the frontline workers can focus more of their energy on helping the next patient who must go on a ventilator.
“Maybe that means we can spend a little bit more time with the next patient to try and get them off the ventilator,” said Griffin. “That’s one of our jobs that is really important because the longer you stay on a ventilator, the more possibility exists that you have complications.”
At the peak of the pandemic, SLU had 10 patients on ventilators. Griffin said it is encouraging that they were able to achieve this milestone, but she worries that improving numbers and warmer weather could cause people to let down their guard.
“Everyone’s not vaccinated,” she said, “so until that happens, we really hope that we can keep these numbers low.”
Griffin knows her team is a big reason the hospital can say they have no COVID-19 patients on ventilators.
“I want to give them a huge shout out because they’re in the frontline, really providing that care that those patients need and trying to get them off the ventilator.”
The St. Louis Metropolitan Task Force says there are a total of 39 patients on ventilators in the hospitals that report to them in the St. Louis area, and the number of ventilators in use is declining.
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 10.
- New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) increased - from 33 yesterday to 39 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions (data lagged two days) increased – from 32 yesterday to 35 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations decreased – from 233 yesterday to 231 today.
- Inpatient confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations decreased - from 228 yesterday to 220 today.
- Inpatient suspected COVID positive hospitalizations increased – from 23 yesterday to 38 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients in the ICUs increased – from 59 yesterday to 63 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators increased – from 38 yesterday to 39 today.
- The number of COVID deaths decreased – from 6 yesterday to 3 today.
- The seven-day moving average of COVID deaths remains the same at 5 today.
- Across the system hospitals, 37 COVID-19 patients were discharged to home yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 19,771.
- Today, staffed bed hospital capacity is at 84%, an average across our task force hospitals. The ICU’s are at 87% of their total staffed bed capacity.