Hospital Sisters Health System hospitals are pleading with the communities they serve to “get vaccinated; get boosted; stay home if you’re ill; and practice all safety measures including masking, social distancing and increased handwashing.” The plea comes as the system which operates hospitals in Illinois and Wisconsin, including Sheboygan St. Nicholas, is experiencing a record high number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
Dr. Mark Shelton, Senior Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer for HSHS said, “To say we are concerned and disheartened cannot begin to explain our frustration. HSHS was hopeful to have turned a corner when the vaccine became readily available, but we are now well over a year into vaccine availability and yet our hospitals have reached a new record number of COVID-9 hospitalizations primarily due to unvaccinated patients.”
The data makes it clear that patients that have received vaccine are far outnumbered by the unvaccinated. As of Friday, January 7, across HSHS Wisconsin and HSHS Illinois hospitals:
303 patients are hospitalized with COVID-19. 230, or 76%, are unvaccinated.
64 patients are in the ICU. 51, or 80%, are unvaccinated.
32 patients are on ventilators. 27, or 84%, are unvaccinated.
In addition, HSHS reports seven COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, and six of those seven were unvaccinated. There are also currently nine COVID-19 positive pediatric patients in HSHS hospitals.
The total number of COVID-19 patients in HSHS facilities, now 303, is a new record, exceeding the previous high of 293 patients set in November of 2020 before vaccines were available, and the patients range from very young, to elderly, and include pregnant women.
Despite the near-capacity levels, Chief Nursing Executive Ken Nelson said that HSHS continues to provide care to any and all types of patients, and said that no one should delay care, especially emergent, for fear of COVID-19 or overloading any health care entity.
Allison Paul, interim CEO and chief nursing officer at HSHS St. John’s hospital in Springfield, Illinois, concluded the announcement by asking the public to, “Please, please reconsider getting vaccinated if you haven’t already received it. It will literally save lives; maybe your own or maybe someone you love.”
