Hospitals Required to Postpone Non-Emergent Procedures

Governor Eric Holcomb announced Wednesday that hospitals will be required to postpone or re-schedule non-emergency procedures.

To postpone or re- schedule non- emergency procedures.

I talked with the leaders of both local hospitals to find out the impact this new order will have on the healthcare of greater lafayette.

"right now we are at or close to capacity and that's one of the challenges we face is icu capacity."-dr. wickert "i feel like a broken record because every time i talk with people i am sharing a similar message that the hospital is at or near capacity every single day now."- dr. bien.

That message is being echoed by hospitals across the state.

That's why starting december 16th procedures requiring an over night stay at the hospital will be postponed or re- scheduled if they are elective.

Both iu health arenett and franciscan health have already been limiting hospital admissions... they hope this new order will stop the strain.

"to tell us clearly that that certain cases need to be delayed or postponed reduces a little bit of the pressure that's currently being experienced in our hospitals."-dr. bien.

Stand up: "one major reason the governor made this decision is because of this map currently no counties are in yellow or blue.

But when cases are looked at per 100- thousand residents.

The map looks like this.

Every single county in indiana is red.

"the state of indiana..

When you talk about counties being red the state of indiana is on fire."-governor holcomb.

And that fire is continuing to claim victims. "for every 200 people who get the disease probably 6 to 10 need to be hospitalized in a week."-dr. bien.

Those hospitalizatican lae week to two.

That's why those in the health care field hope people will realize just how serious the pandemic is.

"this is not made up.

We can't let you in to our hospitals at this point but if you came in you would see many individuals who are very ill that are in the hospital today with covid."-dr. wickert.

Both dr. bien and dr. wickert said hospitals usually have a higher amount of patinets this time of year because many elective surgeries take place before the the new year begins.

They added they now have more people hospitalized with covid-19 now, than at any other point during the pandemic.

Precision 18 chief