Ballad Health reports COVID-19 cluster at Sycamore Shoals Hospital
Published 1:36 pm Wednesday, July 15, 2020
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Photo courtesy of Ballad Health
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BY BRITTNEE NAVE
STAR CORRESPONDENT
Ballad Health officials announced during a media briefing on Wednesday that a cluster of COVID-19 cases had been found at Sycamore Shoals Hospital.
A total of 29 cases were reported, six being patients and 23 being team members. The cases were limited to the hospital’s 12-bed geriatric psych unit, which is where patients are at least 65-years old.
In addition to those who tested positive being placed in isolation, all team members at the hospital (over 300) were tested as a preventative measure whether they had contact with those infected or not.
New admissions to the hospital are being placed on a closed unit and being cared for by team members who have tested negative for the virus.
This cluster was immediately reported to the Department of Health.
“This really serves as a reminder of why masking is so important,” said Jamie Swift, corporate director for infection prevention. “We know there is about 40 percent of people, according to the CDC who may be asymptomatic and can obviously spread the virus, so we want to make sure that we’re masking at all times to help limit the spread.”
In terms of masking, Ballad has a strict policy regarding this.
Eric Deaton, chief operating officer, spoke of the open letter Ballad presented on Monday urging local officials to mandate mask-wearing. Deaton thanked local mayors for mandating this.
“There’s really no reason to think that this continued growth in cases is going to stop anytime soon unless we as citizens of our region start to think about how we can protect each other and take precautions,” said Deaton.
He also worried that the healthcare system could become overwhelmed once flu season begins and school resumes if precautions are not taken now to slow the spread.
Ballad Health currently has 60 inpatients with COVID, 14 of these patients are in ICU, and eight are on ventilators. The average age of patients is a little over 60-years old, however, there have been patients ranging from pediatric to geriatric.
There are currently 40 designated COVID beds available, but they are looking at adding more.
“Our number of patients with COVID-19 have almost tripled in the last week,” said Swift.
Swift discussed the rapid number of cases in the area, noting that an increase in testing is not the cause.
“These numbers indicate that this disease is spreading more rapidly than ever right here in our community,” she said. “So it is extremely important that we continue to take our social distancing, our mask-wearing, and our hand hygiene extremely important to prevent the spread.”
Swift said tests are in high demand at the moment and in some cases it may take longer than usual to get results back, some being a week or even 10 days.
The positivity rate was less than one percent in April of those tested. Now it is over two percent.
Beginning July 17, patients will be designated one visitor who must bring their own mask. Visitors will be maintained for NICU, pediatric, labor and delivery, end of life, and extenuating circumstances.
Chief operating physician, Dr. Clay Runnels appealed to the public for those who have tested positive for and recovered from the virus to consider donating plasma.
This can be scheduled at the Marsh Regional Blood Center by calling 423-408-7500.
For the latest updates on Ballad, you can go to www.balladhealth.org.
