KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Reports of declining hospitalizations in Southwest Missouri have given some Kansas City-area public health experts a sense of optimism – but they stressed the situation in the metro is dire.
Patients who arrive in ambulances to the University of Kansas Health System receive treatment, but in the past couple of weeks, they've had to turn away sick patients from other hospitals.
This comes as the Kansas City-area has a team on the ground that usually shows up following a natural disaster.
"It's uncommon to see that in the Midwest," said Dan Manley, Missouri's Region A Fire and EMS Mutual Aid Coordinator.
A team of 13 medics and EMTs from six different states arrived with a single mission – help with a surge of sick patients at hospitals around the metro.
Since arriving Saturday afternoon, the ambulance strike team has been performing four to five transfers daily, and almost all patients are locals.
"They're at capacity, and so we have to find other ways to help decompress the hospitals or provide support," Manley said.
As a region, the amount of daily new hospitalization due to COVID-19 continues to rise and now is on par with wintertime statistics.
The University of Kansas Health System had 18 people in the intensive care unit battling the virus as of Tuesday morning.
"It does impact how many patients we can take in on any given day, and we evaluate every single patient," said Dr. Tim Williamson, vice president of Quality and Safety at the University of Kansas Health System.
Hospitals in other COVID-19 hotspots around the country like Texas and Arkansas also have asked for assistance, but most of those patients are so ill they can't travel.
"They're too unstable and so we know that many of those patients will likely pass away," Williamson said.
The situation also is playing out here at home.
"We’re scared because we know that, that maybe the worst hasn't come yet," Williamson said, "and if we don't change our behaviors now, there's going to be a lot more, a lot more hospitalization and death."
In the short term, Williamson said, masking is the way to get the more-infectious delta variant under control. But the long-term solution is to get vaccinated.
