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COVID PositiveAMA
What kind of risky behavior did you engage in to catch it?
symptoms generally flu like at this pointloss of smell is the most disturbing
There is an article about Meade behind the KC Star paywall
Until two weeks ago, Meade District Hospital had never admitted a COVID-19 patient. Then, it admitted three in one weekend.For the southwest Kansas town of roughly 1,700, three hospitalizations is the equivalent of several thousand in metropolitan Kansas City, said Gary Morsch, founder of an organization that helps staff rural critical access hospitals. Morsch was working in the Meade hospital’s emergency room that weekend.He said the hospital had two beds set aside for coronavirus patients, and needed to stretch only to accommodate the third. However, he said, it’s a sign of what’s to come in small towns and rural areas that, until recently, were able to avoid the biggest impacts of the deadly virus.“(Small towns) were almost a bubble and I thought maybe they can get through this,” Morsch said, noting that the cases he heard of in the spring were often one off instances. “Once it got in there it spread pretty fast and it’s going to continue.”COVID-19 is starting to consume rural Kansas.The pandemic’s center of gravity has shifted significantly in the last two months. In the two-week period ending Aug. 1, more than 66% of confirmed cases were reported from Johnson, Wyandotte and Sedgwick counties, the state’s three largest population centers. That figure is under 40% for the two weeks ending Oct. 10.Early in the pandemic, public health officials warned of community spread in densely populated cities. Now, most of the state can “probably” be considered to have community spread, said Kristi Zears, spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE).Of the 39 COVID clusters detailed on the department’s website, 27 are located outside Johnson, Wyandotte and Sedgwick.They include the community hospital in Sabetha, Independence High School in Montgomery County and two meatpacking plants in Dodge City.Alan Morgan, CEO of the National Rural Health Association, said what’s happening in Kansas is just a piece of the picture nationwide.Rural areas, Morgan said, are dealing with a perfect storm of poor communication about the risk posed by the virus, a shortage of workers providing medical care and aging populations more likely to have chronic health issues.He expects high mortality rates and long-term side effects will remain the story of rural America and coronavirus for the next decade.“There is a huge communication gulf here,” he said. “How do we turn this boat around? How do we successfully communicate to rural communities that they are most at risk, they really need to be taking more precautions than the urban areas just to safeguard their health care system.”MITIGATION STRATEGIESThat percentage of cases from the three large Kansas counties has ebbed and grown. It dropped to 20% in late April and early May, when the state focused testing efforts on communities with meatpacking plants, where the disease was spreading rapidly.As testing and reported cases increased over the summer, the proportion from the populous counties returned to around 60%. Since August, however, the pattern has again changed.Zears said the rural rise of infection comes as counties have eschewed mask mandates and other mitigation efforts that have been in place in Johnson, Wyandotte and Sedgwick.“As time goes on, and as more and more rural counties do not implement mitigation strategies, we have seen and expect to continue to see an increase in cases in these counties,” she said.Additionally, Zears said, the return of college students to classes in many of these counties has triggered community spread.Morsch, from the rural doctors organization, said the absence of a nationwide strategy and messaging has led to mismatched responses and politicization of the virus.Walking around rural areas, Morsch said, can feel like an entirely different world from the work he does elsewhere in the country. Fewer masks are worn and many people are approaching life as if nothing’s changed.“People didn’t feel the risk, they didn’t appreciate the risk, maybe they didn’t believe there was a risk, maybe they heard the same information but they chose to ignore,” he said.Furthermore, Morsch said, many in rural communities didn’t understand because no one they knew had contracted the virus or died from it. As outbreaks begin in those areas, he said he expects that mentality to change.The return to schools, he said, likely accelerated those outbreaks.RURAL HOSPITALSAlthough most hospitals are prepared for COVID-19 cases, Morsch said, Gove County in northwest Kansas, where the local hospital became overwhelmed, is the “poster child for what can go wrong.”“Whatever happened there is probably what is going to happen in many communities,” Morsch said. “I’d say most hospitals have a plan and they are going to get hit.”In Pittsburg, a local hospital announced an end to elective and non-emergency procedures as cases spiked this week, according to the Pittsburg Morning Sun.“(Pittsburg) should absolutely be a wake-up call that when the hospital capacity gets strained that there’s too much disease in the community,” said KDHE Secretary Lee Norman in a briefing Wednesday.Rural hospitals, Morsch said, have transfer agreements with larger metro hospitals if a case is too severe or they do not have space. David Wild, vice president for performance improvement at the University of Kansas Health System, said about half the patients at the Kansas City, Kansas, hospital are from counties other than Johnson and Wyandotte.The system’s Hays campus, he said, is averaging 20 to 30 coronavirus patients a day, roughly a quarter of their average patient load.Fall is the busiest season for hospitals, Wild said, and the increased volume of cases underscores the need to halt community spread to ensure those with other ailments can receive care.In some hospitals, Morgan, of the National Rural Health Association, said, staff have stopped showing up to work when COVID-19 outbreaks begin.Many hospitals, he said, stopped performing outpatient procedures at the beginning of the pandemic and have closed or are at risk of closing as the pandemic worsens. Since the beginning of the year, he said, 15 rural hospitals have closed nationwide.“Rural communities are the worst possible geographic areas for COVID-19,” he said.
rural "we don't need masks that's a city problem" ignorance is now flooding our hospitals. Thanks Meade KS et.al.
I don’t think any rural hospital is going to be equipped to handle even the slightest outbreak in their community. I doubt their management has gone to any great lengths to secure large amounts of ppe.
last month a relative of mine went to a rural KS ER and told me the nurses weren't wearing masks
Quote from: LickNeckey on October 20, 2020, 12:12:30 PMCOVID PositiveAMADo you have a good idea when you were infected? Also hope you are doing well.
Quote from: LickNeckey on October 20, 2020, 12:44:28 PMsymptoms generally flu like at this pointloss of smell is the most disturbingGet well soon! Are you told to take anything for it or just isolate and get through it?
