Weekly COVID-19 Snapshot

It’s Tuesday, January 12, 2021.

Here are the updated CCMH and Legacy COVID-19 numbers. As of 7:30 am, CCMH has*:

• 11 patients on the medical/surgical floor; of those, 8 are COVID-19 positive
• 10 patients are on the 4 South alternate care site; of those, 0 are COVID-19 positive
• 0 patients in the Surgery alternate care site
• 5 patients in the ICU; of those, 0 are COVID-19 positive
• 0 patients in the overflow ICU; of those, 0 are COVID-19 positive
• 6 patients in Maternal Child and Nursery units

Of the 112 residents at The Legacy Living and Rehabilitation Center, 2 are COVID-19 positive.

If you think you have COVID-19, please call your provider or 307-688-1000 FIRST before coming to the hospital or a clinic. If you do get tested, you should self-quarantine/isolate at home pending test results, and follow the advice of your health care provider or a public health professional. If you have a medical emergency, please call 911. If you are in crisis and need to talk with a counselor please call 307-688-5555.

Get more information at www.cdc.gov/coronavirus or www.cchwyo.org/covid19.

*Medical/Surgical unit has 25 rooms; 4 South alternate care unit has 10 rooms; Surgery alternate care unit has 5 rooms; ICU has 7 rooms; overflow ICU has 10 rooms; Maternal Child and Nursery has 14 rooms; and Emergency Department has 14 rooms.

It’s Tuesday, January 5, 2021

Here are the updated CCMH and Legacy COVID-19 numbers. As of 7:30 am, CCMH has*:

• 12 patients on the medical/surgical floor; of those, 10 are COVID-19 positive
• 10 patients are on the 4 South alternate care site; of those, 1 are COVID-19 positive
• 0 patients in the Surgery alternate care site
• 6 patients in the ICU; of those, 2 are COVID-19 positive
• 4 patients in the overflow ICU; of those, 0 are COVID-19 positive
• 6 patients in Maternal Child and Nursery units
• Emergency Department (ED) has no patients waiting for rooms

Of the 115 residents at The Legacy Living and Rehabilitation Center, 7 are COVID-19 positive.

It’s Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Here are the updated CCMH and Legacy numbers. As of 9 am, CCMH has*:

• 19 patients on the medical/surgical floor; of those, 19 are COVID-19 positive
• 7 patients are on the 4 South alternate care site; of those, 0 are COVID-19 positive
• 0 patients in the Surgery alternate care site
• 7 patients in the ICU; of those, 1 are COVID-19 positive
• 10 patients in Maternal Child and Nursery unit
• Emergency Department (ED) is moderately busy this morning with 1 patient waiting for a room

Of the 123 residents at The Legacy Living and Rehabilitation Center, 7 are COVID-19 positive.

It’s Friday, December 11, 2020

Here are the updated CCMH and Legacy numbers. As of 9 am, CCMH has*:

• 24 patients on the medical/surgical floor; of those, 24 are COVID-19 positive
• 9 patients are on the 4 South alternate care site; of those, 0 are COVID-19 positive
• 5 patients in the Surgery alternate care site; of those, 0 are COVID-19 positive
• 7 patients in the ICU; of those, 4 are COVID-19 positive
• 7 patients in Maternal Child and Nursery unit
• Emergency Department (ED) is busy this morning with 13 patients and has 4 patients waiting for a room; 2 have been waiting overnight.

Of the 126 residents at The Legacy Living and Rehabilitation Center, 13 are COVID-19 positive.

CCH has been asked: The Legacy has visiting restrictions, how are residents becoming positive for COVID-19?

First, the Legacy leadership team, providers and employees have done an excellent job with their strategy to avoid exposure and prevent transmission; however, as the cases in Gillette and the surrounding area increase the risk of transmission also increases.

Positive cases, both resident and staff, have been detected either through mandated testing, or through contact and association of positive cases. When residents are identified as positive, they are transferred to the COIVD-19 unit within The Legacy to prevent further exposure and transmission.

For some background: In late August 2020, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) implemented additional infection prevention requirements for nursing homes aimed at preventing COVID-19 from entering facilities, detecting cases quickly and stopping transmission. That requirement was to begin routine testing of long-term care employees and residents based on the percentage of positive cases in the county the facility resides. Also called county positivity rate, this rate is a percentage of positive cases compared to the number of tests completed in that county. Every county in the United States reports this data to their State Health Department, who then reports it to federal agencies for compilation. The routine testing frequency is monthly, weekly or twice a week and based on percentages less than 5% positivity through greater than 10% positivity.

• <5% county positivity rate means testing occurs once a month
• 5-10% county positivity rates means testing occurs once a week
• >10% county positivity rate means testing occurs twice a week

Again, every long-term care facility in the U.S. is under this guideline. Currently, the reported positivity rate for Campbell County is 44.5%. This and all the county rates are available at https://data.cms.gov/.

Ultimately, the likelihood of transmission from asymptomatic people, or those that don’t have symptoms, is great.

We know residents and families want and need to be together. What we also know is that choices and behaviors outside The Legacy have very specific and direct impact on what happens inside The Legacy. Please continue to encourage your social circles to mask-up, be socially distant, wash their hands frequently, and to stay home when ill. These four actions are proven to reduce community spread and prevent transmission. Please help stop the surge of COVID-19 in our community.

The Legacy is taking admissions case-by-case and day-by-day for people who need long-term care, short-term rehabilitation and inpatient hospice care. The Legacy is NOT admitting anyone to the COVID-19 unit that has not already been cared for at The Legacy prior to becoming COVID-19 positive.

It’s Thursday, December 10, 2020

Here are the updated CCMH and Legacy numbers. As of 9 am, CCMH has*:

• 25 patients on the medical/surgical floor; of those, 25 are COVID-19 positive
• 10 patients are on the 4 South alternate care site; of those, 0 are COVID-19 positive
• 0 patients in the Surgery alternate care site (a site we re-opened today)
• 7 patients in the ICU; of those, 3 are COVID-19 positive
• 10 patients in Maternal Child and Nursery unit
• Emergency Department (ED) is busy this morning and has 10 patients, with 1 patient waiting for a room.

Of the 124 residents at The Legacy Living and Rehabilitation Center, 14 are COVID-19 positive.

CCH has been asked: Why are all patients who need admission to the hospital tested for COVID-19?

If patients come into the Emergency Department, Walk-in Clinic or are referred for admission by a clinic but don’t have symptoms of COVID-19, then they are treated with medical care appropriate for that issue.

As a means to prevent exposure to COVID-19 for both staff, providers and other patients, every patient needing admission to CCMH is tested for COVID-19. This is to ensure proper infection prevention measures are used including but not limited to appropriate room placement, personal protective equipment (PPE) for staff and effective cleaning measures when the patient is discharged.

Keeping non-COVID-19 patients separated from patients who are COVID-19 positive is a priority for the health of all of our patients, which is why CCMH has a dedicated COVID-19 unit located in the Med/Surg and ICU area on the second floor, and two dedicated alternate care sites for patients who are not COVID-19 positive.

Please help stop the surge of COVID-19 in our community. CCH urges our community to wear masks, watch your physical distance and stay at least 6 feet apart, avoid crowds, wash your hands frequently, and stay home when you are sick. 

Wednesday, December 9

CCH established an alternate care site in CCMH to care for the increase in inpatients. Ten (10) additional rooms in the previous medical/surgical unit on the Fourth Floor have been opened to provide care for non-COVID-19 patients. This is staffed by a mix of CCH employees, as well as traveling medical staff and Disaster Medical Assistance Team members paid for by the CARES Act.

Here are the updated CCMH and Legacy numbers. As of 9 am, CCMH has*:

• 22 patients on the medical/surgical floor; of those, 22 are COVID-19 positive
• 10 patients are on the alternate care site; of those, 0 are COVID-19 positive
• 7 patients in the ICU; of those, 5 are COVID-19 positive
• 8 patients in Maternal Child unit
• Emergency Department (ED) has 11 patients with 4 patients awaiting rooms; 2 patients are waiting for rooms on the COVID-19 unit; and 2 patients are waiting for rooms on the alternate care site.

Of the 123 residents at The Legacy Living and Rehabilitation Center, 14 are COVID-19 positive.

CCH has been asked: Are hospitals paid more when someone dies from COVID-19?

We appreciate your questions and comments, and will work to answer them as we receive them. We felt that this question could be highlighted in our post today.

First, no hospital is paid for a “death,” only the care provided up until a patient passes away. It is true that for some hospitals, an inpatient hospitalization with a diagnosis of COVID-19 is paying more than a regular inpatient admission for some other diagnosis. Medicare sets those rates, not local hospitals. It is also true that it is more expensive to take care of a COVID-19 patient because of the amount of labor and personal protective equipment (PPE) used, etc.

However, to imply that hospitals would be “fabricating” a COVID-19 admission to “make money” would mean that they are violating the False Claims Act. A hospital violating the False Claims Act would be a big deal. The fine is three times what Medicare paid to the hospital for each violation, plus fines up to $10,000 per each violation.

Thank you to community members who help slow the spread by wearing a mask, keeping their “physical” distance when out in public, washing or sanitizing their hands frequently, and staying home when they don’t feel well.

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As of 9 am on Monday, December 7 we have:

• 22 patients on the medical/surgical floor with 3 more in a temporary location; of those, 19 are COVID-19 positive
• 7 patients in the ICU; of those, 4 are COVID-19 positive
• 2 patients in Maternal Child (mother and baby), with 2 patients awaiting a bed
• and 4 Emergency Department patients with 1 patients awaiting a bed

Of the 125 residents at The Legacy Living and Rehabilitation Center, 8 are COVID-19 positive.

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Today, CCMH has seen an increase in patients. As of 9 am on Friday December 4 we had:

• 19 patients on our medical/surgical floor with 2 more in a temporary location; of those 19, 16 are COVID-19 positive
• 7 patients (not COVID-19 related) in our ICU
• 15 patients in Maternal Child
• and 5 Emergency Department patients with 2 patients COVID-19 positive and awaiting beds

Of the 132 residents at The Legacy Living and Rehabilitation Center, 10 are COVID-19 positive.

Our dedicated team of healthcare heroes work tirelessly to provide the very best care to our patients and our community in the face of COVID-19. COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are rising in Wyoming and across the nation. As cold weather moves in, people spend more time indoors, and the holidays approach, we encourage you to take steps to slow the spread of COVID-19. CCH urges our community to wear masks, stay at least 6 feet apart, avoid crowds, wash your hands frequently, and stay home when you are sick.

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The numbers of patients with COVID-19 has been increasing over the past month. This has resulted in an increase in the number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19, and an increase in the number of staff who are ill or quarantined.

This information will be provided each week to help our community understand the importance of continuing to practice the behaviors that reduce the spread of COVID-19:

• wearing a face mask
• maintaining social distance; 6 feet
• frequent handwashing
• and staying home when ill, or when family members are ill.

November 20

This graph reflects the bed capacity in the Medical Surgical and ICU units for all types of patients, including those who are being treated for COVID-19, or 32% of the total beds are available. Publically reported data on hospitalizations is available here.

This graph reflects the organization’s supply of Personal Protective Equipment, including face masks, gloves, gowns, hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies.

This graph reflects the availability of supplies to test for COVID-19 at the CCH Lab. Some of the tests collected at the CCH Lab are being sent to other labs for processing, and may take up to 5-7 days to obtain results.

This graph reflects the rate of positive tests performed in the CCH Lab. Other labs in the community, state and region also process tests for Campbell County, so it is not a representation of the positive test rate for the community.

November 12

This graph reflects the bed capacity in the Medical Surgical and ICU units for all types of patients, including those who are being treated for COVID-19, or 39% of the total beds are available. Publicly reported data on hospitalizations is available here.

This graph reflects the organization’s supply of Personal Protective Equipment, including face masks, gloves, gowns, hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies.

This graph reflects the availability of supplies to test for COVID-19 at the CCMH Laboratory. The increase in testing across the country has limited CCH’s ability to obtain testing supplies. Some of the tests collected at the CCH Lab are being sent to other labs for processing, and may take up to five to seven days to obtain results.

This graph reflects the rate of positive tests performed in the CCMH Lab. Other labs in the community, state and region also process tests for Campbell County, Wyoming so it is not a representation of the positive test rate for the community.

Other publicly reported data is available at:
https://sites.google.com/wyo.gov/exec-covid19/hospital-resources

If you think you have COVID-19, please call your healthcare provider first before coming to the hospital or a clinic. If you don’t have a doctor, get in line at the Walk-In Clinic,  www.cchwyo.org/wic. If you have a medical emergency, please call 911. If you are in crisis and need to talk with a counselor please call 307-688-5555.

Get more information at www.cdc.gov/coronavirus or www.cchwyo.org/covid19.