At Grand Rapids Spectrum Health, University of Michigan Health West and Mercy Health Saint Mary’s the situations are similar. All have reached the highest number of COVID-19 hospitalizations since the pandemic began. They are near, at or over capacity with 85% or more of patients unvaccinated. They are younger and sicker. Over 90% of I.C.U patients are unvaccinated and over 90% requiring ventilators are unvaccinated.
The average length of stay is more than two weeks. Emergency room wait times reaching three to six hours. The system is maxed out. As an example, over the past few weeks, Spectrum Health received 700 calls from outlying hospitals for patients requiring a higher level of care. All were denied.
“Second number I’ll give you is 1,100. That’s the number of surgeries we’ve had to defer since this particular surge began.”
Dr. Darryl Elmouchi is President of Spectrum Health West Michigan. He says the situation is causing suffering and psychological trauma.
“And then when you look at the caregivers, all of us and all of the folks who work with us, people are really struggling. This is needless death day after day.”
The leaders from Spectrum, Mercy Health and University of Michigan Health – West all agree the only way to get through the pandemic is through vaccination.