Idaho sends covid patients to Washington (Boise, Moscow: job openings, transfer, taxes)

[pnwguy2]

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/13/u...ton-idaho.html

I know this is controversial. My opinion is the lack of seriousness of the virus in Idaho may be responsible.

EDIT: Looks like a NY Times pay site. But the general article is about how Idaho covid patients have to be sent to Spokane due to lack of available facilities. I think that is fine, but I do question why this needs to occur. A lack of medical facilities in Idaho, or just a lack of seriousness about this in the Gem State? A hard question, but an important one.

[f5fstop]

NY Times, a great source of FAIR news.


Idahoans need to get vaccinated; however, I'm not for a gov't mandate cause that could some unintended consequences many would not like. And even though Idaho is a low vaccine number, a lot of those hospital rooms would not be filled if people had kept better care of themselves before the Virus was delivered by China.
CDC stats who in Ada County 25% are obese; county I live in is worse...30%. Those numbers reflect a major reason why the virus is affecting some people more seriously than others.



And before the NY Times can be fair, I would love to see them cover the number of illegals flooding across the southern border who are flown to and dropped off all over the USA, who are infected with the Wuhan virus. Would love to know how many infected have been dropped off in Idaho.



As for why they are being sent to WA I would love to know what counties they are coming from. If the article is about hospitals in the Spokane area, could it be due to there are not many hospitals in the panhandle area of Idaho, thus the closest are in WA vs. shipping down to Boise or over to a larger city in MT? Does the article go into that detail or is it just a simple piece to match the NYT's model of hating red states?


Many questions, probably no answers.


As I stated, people need to get vaccinated, it appears to work with minimal problems...but it is up to the person to do it.

[Arktikos]

Originally Posted by f5fstop

..

As for why they are being sent to WA I would love to know what counties they are coming from. If the article is about hospitals in the Spokane area, could it be due to there are not many hospitals in the panhandle area of Idaho, thus the closest are in WA vs. shipping down to Boise or over to a larger city in MT?..

My 90 year old mom is now in Idaho, so I'm following this a bit. So far no delays or cancellations for her checkups in Moscow. Here is the story from a more local news source.

https://www.krem.com/article/news/he...5-d9685eecea29

SPOKANE, Wash. — Some Spokane hospitals are coming to the aid of health care facilities in the region, taking patients from across the border in North Idaho as its own hospitals remain in crisis.

The impact of the coronavirus surge in North Idaho has reached the New York Times. In a report published by the newspaper on Monday, Providence Sacred Heart Chief Medical Officer Dr. Daniel Getz said he and others have seen "increasing calls for help from all over Northern Idaho" at the hospital in Spokane.


The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare announced last week that Panhandle Health District and the Idaho North Central District entered into crisis standards of care because of “a massive increase in patients with COVID-19 who require hospitalization.” This means resources are stretched so thin patients can no longer expect the level of care they would receive under normal circumstances.

The Department of Defense has provided Kootenai Health, North Idaho's largest hospital, with a 20-person medical team that includes 14 nurses, four physicians and two respiratory therapists. Kootenai Health leaders also made the decision on Aug. 20 to convert the hospital's largest conference room in the Health Resource Center into a patient care area dedicated to COVID-19 patients. It can accommodate up to 22 patients, according to the hospital.

While Washington state is not yet operating at crisis standards of care, which is when hospitals must deny lifesaving treatment to one patient in order to give it to another, hospital officials said the state of the health care system is fragile right now. Washington State Hospital Association (WSHA) Executive Vice President Taya Briley said the state is doing everything it can to avoid crisis standards of care.

RELATED: Washington hospitals operating in 'contingency care' as COVID-19 cases surge

However, patients from the Idaho Panhandle are contributing to the strain on Spokane-area hospitals.

The New York Times reported that 29 of Sacred Heart's inpatients last week were from Idaho. Officials added that the number of patients sent over to the emergency room from Kootenai Health was up 34% in August. Ariana Lake, a spokesperson for Providence, also confirmed this information to KREM on Monday.

In a joint press conference with Spokane County health care providers on Friday morning, Providence's Chief Operating Officer (COO) said Sacred Heart and Holy Family Hospital were caring for their highest number of COVID-19 patients since the pandemic began. As of Friday morning, 150 patients with COVID-19 are hospitalized at Sacred Heart and Holy Family Hospital in Spokane, according to Currie.






According to the New York Times report, MultiCare has also seen a "substantial rise in calls for support from Idaho." However, both Providence and MultiCare have declined some of the requests due to capacity issues, the report says.

Kevin Maloney, a spokesperson for MultiCare, said the organization received 30 requests from Idaho's critical access hospitals in August. Due to capacity limitations, MultiCare could only accept 10 of them, Maloney said. MultiCare has also received requests from Colorado, Texas, Alaska and Oregon.

Washington hospitals absorbing some patients from Idaho has also led to "some ripple effect on western Washington," Briley said. And while Briley pointed out that level loading among hospitals is an everyday practice, Dr. Christopher Baliga, a Virginia Mason Franciscan Health infectious disease specialist, added that hospitals' capacity to take in out-of-state patients right now is "limited."

Providence has indefinitely paused some surgeries and procedures performed at Sacred Heart and Holy Family. The paused surgeries include those that can be delayed without harm or risk to a patient. MultiCare hospitals in Spokane have also paused some elective surgeries amid the surge in coronavirus infections and hospitalizations.

The New York Times reports that the influx of patients has led to longer emergency room wait times for Sacred Heart, and those who do have a bed may not get a place in the intensive care unit as they normally would.

Dr. Getz addressed the delay in surgeries and procedures, including procedures to remove brain tumors and treat orthopedic injuries.

“We are delaying care for people who are in misery,” he told the New York Times. “It’s agonizing for those patients. This has real impacts on these people who are waiting.”

[ejay]

We were rolling out hospitals under trump. And now nothing? Our neighbors in Washington have been flooding Idaho although the pandemic. When told to stay in their state they still came here. The rules do not apply to them apparently. And with so many folks who work in Washington and live in Idaho. Spokane and Cda are connected. So if we need more hospital space we will use theirs. They get a lot of patients from Idaho. Without the virus. Corrupt d alene specifically has done a lousy job at future planning. They are only concerned with raising taxes on property. They have done very little to plan out for all the folks they keep inviting here. The hospital without COVID was lousy. And nurses were leaving for Spokane. Kmc should have been building right along with the population. But they haven’t. And now we are feeling the results of not thinking forward. If this were an actual pandemic it would not matter how many beds you have. This is a man made virus. Yet for some reason we have decided to get angry with our fellow man instead of the government that let us all down. This is a failure of our government. And the people who started it are still in charge. And I just cannot believe that people will still listen to them. Why listen to fools who have put your very life at risk. This is serious action against the American public. And all we can do is blame anti vaxxers? They are the problem when your very own USA government funded that research. Stop blaming the innocent. If you want to place the blame place it squarely on the United States and China.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

New York Times. I gotta tell you the very first place I look when I want to find out what is happening in Idaho is New York. 'Cause they are such experts on everything Idaho.

[elousv]

Keep in mind that Kootenai Health has 500 job openings including 280 critical care staff. Last week the local paper said a team of 20 health care people came to help from the DOD.

[f5fstop]

Good point. There is a shortage of healthcare workers in the USA.


I'll be asking around tomorrow when I visit the hospital. My cardiologist's office is in Portneuf and surprisingly, I called this afternoon for an appointment and I made one for tomorrow at 8AM.

[pnwguy2]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

New York Times. I gotta tell you the very first place I look when I want to find out what is happening in Idaho is New York. 'Cause they are such experts on everything Idaho.

With all due respect oregonwoodsmoke, NYT has been considered a national newspaper for decades and is sold and delivered across the country.

[TohobitPeak]

The title of this thread should be corrected to specify that North Idaho is filling up the hospitals in the Spokane area.
Southern Idaho has enough hospitals although they are near capacity.

North Idaho peeps, your 'murica is a joke. Get vaccinated!

[TohobitPeak]

Originally Posted by pnwguy2

With all due respect oregonwoodsmoke, NYT has been considered a national newspaper for decades and is sold and delivered across the country.

If the Times, one of the most respected papers in the country was owned by Fox News the doubters would support it

Most of Idaho's government officials are embarrassing jokes and are weak. The ones who are not are in Boise and the Wood River Valley.