Local COVID-19 case counts in Juneau skyrocketed in July, and the community’s risk level went to “high” last week. That’s meant more cases and more restrictions at Bartlett Regional Hospital.
Infection preventionist Charlee Gribbon said she has to manage a lot more risk in the hospital — for patients and staff.
“Our infection rate has increased at the hospital just like it has in the community. And we’ve seen that across the board,” she said. “The community level infection equals what’s happening in the hospital because we are community members.”
The hospital has a 90% vaccination rate. There are 75 unvaccinated employees spread across departments, from doctors and nurses to mental health clinicians and administrative staff.
Gribbon said eight healthcare workers at Bartlett tested positive for COVID-19 in July alone. So far this year, there have been 16. By contrast, in 2020 only 12 employees at the hospital tested positive.
Gribbon said the uptick is because the delta variant is so much more infectious and because both vaccinated and unvaccinated people can get it — and that people are mixing socially much more now than in 2020. People arrive on planes, cruise ships come into town and restaurants and summer camps are open.
“I’m monitoring symptoms and testing people on very low symptoms; our testing threshold is very low. So what that translates to the hospital’s amount of response, at least in the employee health part, is testing our employees a lot more often,” she said. “So that’s what I’m doing, is testing a lot.”
She estimates she tests about 10 employees a day.
The hospital is screening patients and visitors with the same questions it’s been using since the beginning of the pandemic. Masks are still required at all times.
The visitor policy has changed, though. Now patients are allowed only two visitors throughout their hospital stay — and they have to be the same two visitors. Before, patients were allowed two visitors at a time, but as many different visitors as they liked.
As of Friday, Aug. 6 there were four COVID-19 patients at Bartlett. Of those, two were severely ill and required high levels of additional oxygen. If they need to be intubated, they’ll be sent to Anchorage or Seattle for care.
