TRAVERSE CITY — Federal, state and local health officials are sizing up treatment capacity — beds, ventilators and protective gear for health workers — as the COVID-19 pandemic makes its way into the region.
The contagious novel coronavirus that leads to the COVID-19 disease has quickly spread across the nation and Michigan has 33 presumptive positive cases so far. State authorities last week decided to close schools, banned visitors to hospitals and nursing homes and recommended everyone practice community mitigation and social distancing.
In other words, Michiganders have been instructed to be extremely hygienic and stay home and away from others as much as absolutely possible. The point is to elongate the time over which patients show up for treatment at hospitals so medical facilities don’t become inundated.
But the illness is expected to make its way everywhere eventually, even into far-flung northern Michigan. In fact, a Charlevoix County woman tested positive for COVID-19 Friday in a downstate hospital after international travel but has not yet returned home.
However, health officials say it’s only a matter of time until the virus does infiltrate the region and people here do fall ill.
The best tactic to face the coming challenge is to slow the spread as much as possible, said Wendy Hirschenberger, health officer for Grand Traverse County Health Department.
“In the absence of a vaccine or treatment, community mitigation and social distancing are the best and only tools we have to protect our community,” she said.
Hirschenberger said many health department workers have already been fitted for the specialized N95 respirators and face masks and more will be fitted in coming days.
Hirschenberger told reporters during a Friday press conference she had learned from state officials how Michigan now has 1,000 test kits, but Dr. Christine Nefcy, chief medical officer for Munson Healthcare, explained how that’s 1,000 test kits for Michigan’s 10 million population.
“That makes it hard for us to test everyone,” Nefcy said.
It would be better for epidemiological tracking if more people could be tested, the doctor said, but that’s not currently an option.
Instead, the recommended hygiene and isolation measures should help “lower the spike” of patients who come down with COVID-19, allowing medical providers a “better chance to being able to address large numbers of patients,” Nefcy said.
The medical concept was demonstrated this week in a University of Michigan Medicine graphic that made the rounds on social media.
Dr. Russell Faust, medical director for Oakland County — where six of Michigan’s COVID-19 cases have been found, including one of the first two on Tuesday — said it is “very clear” that the U.S. does not have enough tests for public health labs. But he said hospitals in the county soon would be able to do their own testing as the U.S. government and commercial labs boost production.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan set aside time to answer reporters’ questions about coronavirus concerns during a Thursday conference call regarding elevated Great Lakes water levels. He criticized the federal government’s response to the pandemic, specifically how COVID-19 test kits are distributed.
“We know testing kits are coming to Michigan ... but right now it’s wholly inadequate,” Peters said. “People have to know whether they are sick or not sick.”
Peters said he’s frustrated with limited or inaccurate information coming out of the Trump administration. He said the United States must step up its testing rate.
“This administration has got to get their act together,” Peters said.
U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet, said the Trump administration signed off on $8 billion in emergency funding Congress approved to combat coronavirus.
“This funding package will help speed the development of vaccines, bolster access to testing and treatments, and expand access to telemedicine services,” Bergman wrote to constituents in a recent newsletter. “Our country is also dramatically increasing the number of tests — private companies began shipping lab tests this week — which will in turn exponentially increase our testing capabilities.”
Masks, gloves and other equipment are crucial as health care workers face the COVID-19 outbreak. There is a strategic national stockpile that the U.S. government controls — but no one knows what, beyond that stockpile, is available in the private sector.
Some hospitals have a surplus of the protective equipment and some not enough. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working on a system that would track the inventory across the U.S.
The big hurdle isn’t the technology. The issue is getting hospitals comfortable sharing information about their preparedness — information that, until now, they have considered confidential.
Locally, medical workers have taken stock of equipment and supplies at hospitals across northwest Lower Michigan.
Nefcy said the Munson Healthcare system has thousands of the necessary N95 masks at hand.
At Munson Medical Center in Traverse City, there are 54 negative isolation rooms which provide special airflow pressure to prevent cross-contamination, said Dianne Michalek, vice president of marketing and communication.
She said the hospital also has 29 adult ventilators available as well as six infant ventilators, of which two are transport units. There also are three oscillatory ventilators that can be used.
“We would be able to expand if needed to using portable, surgical or other types of ventilation equipment,” Michalek said.
Across the entire Munson Healthcare system, there are 81 ventilators and 89 negative pressure isolation rooms, she said.
Additionally, the large medical care system has 1,179 beds available among its seven owned and two affiliated hospitals — Traverse City, Cadillac, Charlevoix, Frankfort, Gaylord, Grayling, Kalkaska, Manistee and St. Ignace.
“However, as part of our emergency preparedness plans we have the ability to flex that number up by setting up alternate care sites using locations such as Foster Family Community Health Center, Copper Ridge Surgery Center, trailers, tents, etc.,” Michalek said.
She said the Munson organization annually runs drills and simulates a surge of patients on the system to prepare for just such a pandemic.
“Yes, we are prepped and ready,” Nefcy said. “I don’t think we know what the impact could potentially be. Certainly we are trying to do the best we can to learn from other countries and their experience.”
In Petoskey, McLaren Northern Michigan hospital has 202 beds, among which are eight special isolation rooms with negative pressure ventilation, said Kathi St. Pierre, the hospital’s clinical nurse manager.
She said the hospital is able to expand the number of isolation rooms to entire floors on their own isolated ventilation system.
McLaren’s Cheboygan campus is not licensed for overnight beds.
St. Pierre also said the hospital maintains 18 standard ventilators with the ability to also use portable ventilator units and other surgical ventilation equipment.
And medical facilities are also practically on lock-down.
No visitors will be allowed inside McLaren Northern Michigan hospital in Petoskey, a policy that started Saturday morning following Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive order that imposed restrictions on entry into health care facilities, residential care facilities, congregate care facilities, and juvenile justice facilities.
Brian Lawson, communications director for Munson Medical Center in Traverse City, said hospital officials there were working to clarify what Whitmer’s exemption for exigent circumstances meant.
Local veterans also will notice changes at federal health facilities.
Bill Ruck of Traverse City went through a screening process for COVID-19 before a regular appointment for his monthly shot at the Colonel Demas T. Craw Veterans Administration Clinic in Traverse City.
Ruck said a VA Clinic nurse took his temperature, tested his breathing and asked him questions about coughing, any signs of a fever or about any recent overseas trips.
“It made me feel positive that the VA was checking on you,” said Ruck, who served two years in the Army.
The Washington Post this week reported on a recent study by the Center for Health Security at John Hopkins that estimated the United States has a total of 160,000 ventilators available for patient care with at least an additional 8,900 in the national stockpile.
The Post reported the nation has an estimated 924,100 hospital beds, according to a 2018 American Hospital Association survey, but many are already occupied. The U.S. also has 46,800 to 64,000 medical intensive-care unit beds, according to the report.
There are an additional 51,000 ICU beds for cardiology, pediatrics, neonatal, burn patients and others, The Post reported.
State officials did not respond to requests for information about the number of Michigan’s available hospital beds, isolation rooms and ventilators.
