The largest hospital in Alaska announced on Tuesday that it enacted crisis standards of care due to strained resources, adding the situation could be exacerbated by rising COVID-19 cases.
Providence Alaska Medical Center is experiencing a “distressing reality” of a lack of “the staff, the space, or the beds” to meet medical needs, Dr. Kristen Walkinshaw, the hospital’s chief of staff, wrote in an open letter on Tuesday.
“While we are doing our utmost, we are no longer able to provide the standard of care to each and every patient who needs our help,” Walkinshaw wrote. “The acuity and number of patients now exceeds our resources and our ability to staff beds with skilled caregivers, like nurses and respiratory therapists. We have been forced within our hospital to implement crisis standards of care.”
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The hospital will prioritize scarce resources and treatments to aid patients who would benefit from them the most, the letter said. Noting the COVID-19 positivity rate of more than 30% among the hospital’s adult patients, Walkinshaw said the hospital may not have room for future patients who need medical care and that elective surgeries may be postponed.
Walkinshaw’s letter warned that COVID-19 hospitalizations may escalate in the next two to four weeks, making the hospital’s situation even worse.
“What is already a stressful situation could rapidly progress to a catastrophe,” she wrote.
The hospital asked Alaska residents to wear masks even if vaccinated, stay home when sick, get vaccinated, and avoid activities and situations that would increase the risk of requiring hospital care.
Other regions within the United States have reported strained resources as a result of the pandemic. Earlier this month, Idaho enacted a crisis standards of care plan to ration healthcare to patients in a bid to help hospitals keep up with a surge in COVID-19 cases.
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Alaska experienced 676 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, with over 2,100 COVID-19 hospitalizations since March 2020, according to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. Nearly 62% of Alaska residents have received their first vaccine dose, with over 56% fully vaccinated, the department added.
Providence Alaska Medical Center did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
