Geneva, Winfield hospitals hit patient levels of last winter’s peak

The number of hospitalized patients at Northwestern Medicine’s Delnor Hospital in Geneva and Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield on Wednesday hit the same level of last December’s peak, according to a Northwestern Medicine spokeswoman.

However, neither hospital has had to activate their surge plans, which include steps such as putting two patients in one room and setting up a labor pool where staff can be reassigned to areas of greatest need, spokeswoman Kim Waterman stated in an email.

“We have been able to open the overflow units as needed to meet demand, but are not implementing surge plans,” she stated in an email.

Dr. Jordan Taylor, a hospital medicine physician at Delnor, said the number of hospitalized patients fluctuates “hour to hour” but that officials there also are not at the point of employing the surge protocol that’s in place.

“In the spring of 2020, our healthcare system was almost at the brink of collapse because the volumes were so high. But we’re in a better place now to manage patients,” Taylor said.

Dr. Justin Macariola-Coad, chief medical officer at Advocate Sherman Hospital in Elgin said that the number of COVID-19 patients is “rising steadily” and the vast majority of them are unvaccinated.

“Our hospitals across Illinois and Wisconsin are treating 1,146 COVID-19 inpatients, more than three times the number from eight weeks ago,” he said. “We have 62 COVID patients at Advocate Sherman Hospital This situation is growing more challenging by the day — beds are tight, wait times are long and our team members are strained. Despite that, our commitment to providing safe, quality care remains absolute.”

Dr. Jay Liu, an infectious disease physician at Northwestern Medicine, treats COVID-19 patients who are admitted to Delnor. With the hospitals filling up and the continued spread of both the delta and omicron variants, getting a booster shot is even more imperative. Natural immunity doesn’t seem to be working, he said, adding that doctors are seeing reinfections among unvaccinated people who’ve had COVID-19 before.

“The ICU is pretty full, but that changes day to day. The bed situation is fluid, but we’re certainly very busy,” he said. “We are recommending boosters broadly, because data suggests that two doses are not as effective as preventing disease. Although they’re still good at preventing severe disease.”

Macariola-Coad also is urging people to get vaccinated and boosted, as the number of cases and hospitalizations continue to rise.

“Vaccination helps immensely to prevent you from being hospitalized or dying from COVID-19, and it’s becoming more clear that a booster shot adds significant protection, even from the omicron variant,” he stated in an email.

Taylor, who treats patients who are not in the ICU, said that the majority of the hospitalized at Delnor involve unvaccinated people. He said he has seen fully vaccinated patients in the hospital, but those people tend to have underlying conditions. Luckily, he said most of his patients end up recovering without being admitted to the ICU, but it’s often hard to tell who will fare well and who won’t.

“It’s so variable, I tell patients all the time that with COVID, it’s impossible to predict,” Taylor said. “We’ve identified risk factors for people likely to get severely ill, but it’s still hard to say who will get severely sick or get better quickly. Despite what we’ve learned in past, there are still a lot of unknowns.”

Some unvaccinated patients are “remorseful” about not getting the vaccine, while others tell him that they will still not get the shot, even after being hospitalized with the virus, Taylor said.

He often spends time discussing the benefits of vaccination with those who are reluctant, but said he does not want to “scold” them. Taylor said it’s important to address their concerns, as well as misinformation that circulates online and on social media.

“The general public has not seen what we’ve seen over the past two years. They haven’t seen people suffering and dying from this,” he said. “If they could have seen it, I think a larger number of those who are hesitant would definitely get [the vaccine]. There is so much evidence that the vaccine has made a tremendous impact in reducing the number of hospitalizations or deaths.”

Almost two years into the pandemic, Taylor said that he is “frustrated” with the amount of suffering that he continues to see with the the intermittent spikes in hospitalized patients.

“I know that vaccines could’ve prevented [hospitalizations and deaths} and it puts a huge burden on doctors and nurses,” he said. “My frustration is also the lack of communication between the medical community and the public. Maybe that means new spokespeople, or a new means to get information out, but there’s a lack of trust. The voices of doctor and epidemiologists, the people on the front lines, they’re the voices that matter the most. That gets lost in the current political and financial climate.”