While COVID Cases Fill ER and Hospital Beds, Accessing Medical Care Is Tough in Illinois

Throughout Illinois, hospital admissions of COVID cases are rapidly increasing, further diminishing ICU bed capacity. The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) reported, on January 21st, 183,722 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including an increase of 746 deaths since January 14, 2022. 

Over the course of the pandemic, Illinois managed not to exceed hospital bed capacity

Holiday gatherings were anticipated to drive an increase of cases over the next few weeks, thus putting additional pressure on Illinois’ hospitals and healthcare workers. 

Late December 2021, as Illinois was seeing records for new COVID-19 cases, Gov. J.B. Pritzker urged hospitals to postpone non-emergency surgeries and other procedures to prepare for a likely surge of post-holiday omicron patients and for a potential shortage of staffed ICU beds. 

The state and hospitals throughout Illinois kept trying to prevent the state’s healthcare infrastructure from being overwhelmed by the ongoing Omicron variant surge of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations. Over the course of the pandemic, by working closely together, state and hospitals managed to prevent Illinois from exceeding hospital bed capacity, unlike other states. 

Gov. Pritzker stressed the system was “preparing for a continuing post-holiday surge”, and people needed to help them in this effort. “With hospital staff already working so hard, I appreciate the work hospital leadership is doing to assure capacity, including postponing non-emergency surgeries and procedures to ensure their ability to handle serious COVID cases and other emergencies without putting patients at risk,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “To all Illinoisans: please understand that the nation is experiencing high COVID transmission rates, and some surgeries in Illinois will be postponed. We’re asking our residents to temporarily hold off on important medical care like tonsillectomies, bariatric surgeries and hernia repair. As we work to keep ICU beds open, I continue to applaud the efforts of our hospitals and healthcare workers across the state, who have been heroes for us all.”

Unvaccinated patients have taken over the hospitals in recent weeks

The 5th COVID surge of new cases did not fail to come, with signs present even before the holidays.

“We are currently seeing approximately 500 new admissions a day to Illinois hospitals due to COVID-19, and approximately 90% of those are unvaccinated,” said IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. “There is a healthcare worker shortage in Illinois, in the U.S., and across the world. We’re seeing health care workers leave the profession because they are burnt out after watching people suffer severe illness and even death for almost two years now. We want to make sure that there is a hospital bed available for anyone for any reason – cancer complications, appendicitis, stroke, heart attack, car crash, or COVID-19.  Please get vaccinated and get boosted, for all of us.”

JB Pritzker and the Illinois Health and Hospital Association have told hospitals to take every possible measure to maintain and expand bed capacity, including postponing non-emergency surgeries and other procedures as needed and without risking patient harm. Some hospitals have already delayed non-emergent procedures to increase capacity, and the Governor and hospital leaders urge all hospitals to take needed steps to ensure sufficient capacity.

Some hospitals have already delayed non-emergent procedures, others were prepared to

In response to the governor’s announcement, OSF HealthCare Chief Operating Officer Mike Cruz said his system has a “variety of options.” OSF operates St. Joseph Medical Center in Bloomington.

“COVID-19 has never been more widespread in many communities we serve than it is right now,” Cruz said on December 30th. “We are currently managing to serve people coming to us for care, and OSF HealthCare has a variety of options if we face an expected post-holiday influx, including but not limited to, delaying some non-emergency procedures and surgeries. We join with the governor and the state public health director in urging people to get vaccinated and boosted, wear a mask, carefully consider how and when you gather, wash your hands and keep your distance in public places.”

Some hospitals have already delayed non-emergent procedures. 

Carle BroMenn Medical Center President Colleen Kannaday told WGLT in mid-December that it had already started to defer some elective surgeries in consultation with physicians. Kannaday called it a “very difficult decision.”

“You’re not able to bring a patient in for an elective surgery who’s going to require an inpatient bed or ICU bed, when there’s no bed to put them in. It’s unfortunate,” she said.

Patients in need of certain surgeries have been notified those surgeries have been postponed, sometimes after they had already made arrangements to miss work or have their children taken care of in order to have that surgery. Although they are called “elective”, many of these surgeries are really necessary to prevent further harm to the patients or ensure their conditions don’t get even more critical. Some may need surgery to prevent a cancer recurrence, and postponing such an intervention poses a risk to the patient. 

Longer waiting periods in the ER and fewer vacant beds

Another problem is patients have to wait longer to get treated in the ER. Although all the major hospital systems in the Chicago area have mandated COVID-19 vaccination for their staff members since last September, Northwestern Medicine being the last one to do so for its 23,000 workers statewide, hospitals are understaffed since many health professionals got sick, and others opted out of the system.

This is why longer ER waits have become common for patients with serious but non-life-threatening illnesses and injuries. As of January 2nd, the most recent state data available, Chicago hospitals had 239 people waiting in beds in ERs for beds elsewhere in the hospital to be available — which is the most since the start of the pandemic. Another 220 people were waiting in ERs in hospitals in suburban Cook County, with more still in the neighboring counties. 

As the number of COVID-19 cases keeps on rising, the situation is only bound to get worse, while a real solution to the problem has yet to be found.