CoxHealth continues to address rise in COVID-19 rates

By MELODY METZGER

Lamar Democrat

Steve Edwards, president and CEO of CoxHealth, a Springfield based hospital system with facilities in several nearby communities including Cox Barton County Hospital in Lamar, spoke to the media on Monday, Dec. 7, announcing a $1 million expansion plan due to what the healthcare facility sees as an extremely rapid spread of COVID-19. It was noted by Edwards that in the first nine months of the pandemic, Cox had 180 deaths, while in the last two weeks there have been 60 deaths recorded. In other words, according to Edwards, “In the last two weeks we have had 60, so one-third of the deaths we had in nine months, we’ve had in the last two weeks.” Edwards added, “We expect the next weeks and two months or so to be the worst yet”. Of course, with the holidays upon us and cold weather moving many indoors, unfortunately the virus will more than likely spread at a rapid rate.

In the coming weeks CoxHealth will add 33 beds to its already existing fifth floor COVID-19 ICU unit at Cox South in Springfield. Including this expansion, the health system will have added more than 180 beds to its hospitals since the COVID-19 pandemic first began. The target completion date should be the end of this year. “We have said from the beginning that we would rather build spaces and not need them, then need them and not have them,” said Edwards. “Our great hope is that we never need this expansion to care for COVID-19 patients, but it will have been worth it to us to have it ready if we do.”

Work on the project will transform remaining shell space into a medical unit and construction will begin in the coming days. The target completion date will be at the end of the year.

In the conference call with other members of the media, Edwards stated that with the expansion of COVID-19 cases filling up the larger hospitals, a strain is being put on smaller rural hospitals such as Cox Barton County, a Critical Access Hospital (or rural hospital), limited to a 25 bed capacity. Patients that must be transferred are not always able to be so, due to the regional hospitals being full. According to Edwards it is definitely a crisis across the midwest.

As a means to not overfill the hospital beds, Edwards stated that a new in-home care option has been offered to COVID-19 patients, mainly with extremely mild cases, as well as other issues that can be treated in an in-home setting. This option will be available in certain situations where the patient’s needs can be properly addressed by EMTs and nurses, as well as by medical staff checking in twice a day with the aide of TeleHealth. This option offers borderline patients the ability to return home; freeing up much needed space for those experiencing more serious symptoms.

Also being introduced by CoxHealth is rapid testing, a COVID-19 rapid antigen test. According to Edwards this test is much quicker, with about a 30 minute turnaround, compared to other tests that may take two to three days in which to obtain a result. Unfortunately, at this time, this test is available at all CoxHealth facilities other than Cox Barton County Hospital. This situation is currently being addressed, as an Urgent Care unit would be necessary to offer the rapid testing.

When asked about Governor Parson bringing in outside staffing to help a much overloaded system, Edwards stated that if CoxHealth is fortunate enough to get extra staffing, that such an event would be great; however, he stated that other options are currently being pursued as well. Not only has CoxHealth applied for additional staffing resources through the state, it is currently bringing in traveling health professionals and is aggressively hiring to help staff the new areas.

Edwards concluded the highly informative press conference by giving accolades to all of the health department workers as they continue their attempt to do an accurate job of contract tracing, which has become overwhelming with the challenging need to keep up with necessary information. Edwards stressed that the best way to protect oneself, as well as others, was for each individual to take personal responsibility as they continue habits of constant hand washing, not touching one’s face, social distancing and mask wearing, as well as other precautions that may be needed to be taken to help alleviate the spread of this disease.

The conference concluded with Edwards stating, “We are good at acute care, but not public health, especially with the lack of funding they are facing”. Referring to the public health workers Edwards stated, “These are the heroes that are not getting the recognition they deserve”.