As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to run wild across Wisconsin and the state sets records almost daily for positive tests results, deaths, or hospital admissions…Milwaukee area hospitals start making adjustments to accommodate facts on the ground.
Children’s Wisconsin to accept adult patients during pandemic.
Children’s Wisconsin in Wauwatosa has agreed to accept adult patients up to age 26 from other hospitals that are reaching their capacity limits due to an influx of Covid-19 patients.
The independent pediatric specialty hospital will not admit patients who are Covid-19 positive or influenza-positive, chief medical officer Dr. Mike Gutzeit said Monday during a media conference.
Typically, Children’s provides care to patients no older than 18.
Advocate Aurora cuts surgical admissions 50% as Covid surges, Froedtert weighs options.
Advocate Aurora Health Care will reduce by 50% the number of hospital admissions for elective procedures as the largest health care system in both Wisconsin and Illinois navigates a surge of Covid-19 patients.
The policy will take effect later this week at all Advocate Aurora hospitals, said Dr. Jeff Bahr, chief Aurora Medical Group officer. The 50% figure is lower than a largely complete suspension of elective procedures and surgeries that Advocate Aurora and other health systems implemented this spring during the first Covid-19 surge.
Advocate Aurora is the first health care system in southeast Wisconsin to announce suspending some elective procedures, but others could follow. Froedtert Health, for example, “is considering postponing elective procedures,” said spokeswoman Gerry Steele.
This is where the refusals to take the suggested precautions are starting to come home to roost…and at this point I don’t care if you won’t social distance or wear a mask and you get sick. I care when you show up in the hospital and put others at risk out of your selfishness…because hospital resources are now in short supply.
In the nine-county southeast Wisconsin region, 899 Covid-19 patients were hospitalized as of Sunday compared with 135 when the surge started in September. Milwaukee County accounted for more than half of the southeast Wisconsin total with 485 hospitalizations as of Nov. 13 compared with 77 on Sept. 18.
The state Department of Health Services on Monday also reported 12 deaths, bringing the death toll to 2,649.
People are already dying after being turned away for other health reasons.