My ER has been totally slammed over the past three weeks. We have (and still have our share of) COVID+ admit holds, as well as other ICU holds. Our ICU is full, 7/8 are COVID+, if I'm not mistaken, and there's not another ICU bed to be found, basically anywhere, in NC. We extubated a non-COVID COPD exacerbation earlier today, but she's still on BiPAP. She came in last Wednesday morning, we had to intubate her last Thursday morning (subsequently, she coded) and she's still hanging out in our ER. She's on a waitlist at a hospital near Charlotte (approx. 150 miles away) and she's #63 on that list. Another non-COVID guy, still on the vent, had to go from ER to the OR yesterday evening, and then come back to the ER. He's waitlisted at Emory in Atlanta. Another COVID+ that we're holding, we might have been able to get her to an ICU/dialysis bed.....in Reston, VA (only 500+ miles away) if we only could get her transported there. Her room air O2 sat yesterday afternoon when I landed her was 47%.
It's not just COVID that's suffering.