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Houston hospitals see slight decrease in COVID-19 hospitalizations
FOX 26 Ivory Hecker speaks with Houston Methodist CEO Dr. Marc Boom about the recent decrease in COVID-19 hospitalization.
HOUSTON - Daily new COVID-19 hospitalizations have now trended downward for nearly a week, according to the latest data from the Texas Medical Center.
Hospital leaders at Memorial Herman and Houston Methodist told FOX 26 their hospitals are still stressed past normal capacity, and while a small downturn in hospitalizations is great, they’re not out of the woods yet.
“We’re certainly stressed in the inpatient space,” said Dr. James McCarthy, chief physician executive at Memorial Hermann Health System.
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The Texas Medical Center is reporting a six-day decline in the number of daily COVID-19 related hospitalizations July 14th - 19th.
“We’re happy to see the numbers flattening and going down slightly—only slightly,” said Dr. Mark Boom, CEO of Houston Methodist. “Watching that very closely, it’s good news. It’s happened about when we expected it to happen based on some testing data that we saw level off in Houston initially. My concern is that we’ve seen that testing data go back up after the 4th of July, so we’re worried that over the next few days we may see hospitalizations go back up, so I’m hoping this isn’t just a temporary respite.”
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“The slight drop in hospitalizations is great, but we’re not confident we’re out of the woods yet,” said McCarthy.
Memorial Hermann is one of the hospital systems that have had to expand and convert to meet the high demand of COVID-19 on top of other illnesses.
“We’ve shifted a significant amount of provider workforce into the hospitals to help manage that, and that’s nurses coming in from all over the state,” said McCarthy. “That’s nursing being re-deployed.”
With hospitals now about 10 percent into phase 2 of ICU capacity, there is some room for things to get worse, and doctors are concerned they will get worse.
“Very concerned about the start of school and not taking precautions in school,” said McCarthy. “We know without a question that children get COVID-19. They can transmit COVID-19.”
HISD teacher Meghan Hokom was hospitalized with the flu last school year despite taking every health and safety precaution.
“I still got sick—so sick in fact,” said Hokom.
After a heart transplant three years ago, she’s high risk, and this summer she decided to quit teaching rather than risk her life to COVID-19 in the classroom.
“Most of the safety measures that they were recommending were to keep the children safe and not necessarily, how do we keep the adults safe?” said Hokom.
With the COVID-19 test positivity rate continuing to climb, doctors say it’s clear the virus is spreading more than ever. They’re urging people to keep wearing masks and social distancing.