COVID-positivity rate drives OMC hospital admissions

PORT ANGELES — A snapshot of Olympic Medical Center was provided Thursday by CEO Darryl Wolfe.

Of the 54 patients in the hospital’s acute care units, 14 are suffering with COVID-19, Wolfe reported in an online news conference.

Twelve of them are unvaccinated, he said, and range in age from their 30s up to their 80s.

The two vaccinated patients are elders between the ages of 60 and 89.

Olympic Medical Center is reconfiguring the hospital and re-erecting the emergency tent outside the annex building, he noted, and postponing all non-urgent surgeries.

These measures are to create capacity wherever possible “as we continue to work through the surge,” and accommodate “a lot more patients seeking ICU levels of care.”

Dr. Scott Kennedy, OMC Chief Medical Officer, noted the hospital currently has sufficient ventilators and medication supplies, but “we anticipate a high rate of [hospital] admissions” in the coming days.

The number of positive COVID tests, at OMC’s drive-through site and throughout Clallam County, is reaching record highs, he said.

Clallam’s positive-test rate hit 21.4 percent during the two-week period that ended this past Monday. In Jefferson County, the rate is 11.82 percent.

“I see birthdates from the 1920s to the 1960s, regularly. Just the age of this group of positive cases puts individuals at risk of hospitalization and more severe disease,” Kennedy said.

Through all of this, OMC is laboring under an intense shortage of people.

Working through the past many months has left OMC’s workforce fatigued and overwhelmed, Chief Human Resources Officer Jennifer Burkhardt said.

Nurses must sit beside patients as they take their last breaths. No one knows when the pandemic will come to an end. These things, she said, have a powerful effect on workers.

OMC has 1,640 employees, Burkhardt noted, but it also has 231 positions open.

Nearly 70 of those are nursing positions.

OMC is redeploying the staff members who would have been needed for non-urgent surgeries, distributing them around the hospital. Still, many workers are out, Burkhardt said, so it is difficult to staff all of the shifts.

“We are seeing an array of responses” to Gov. Jay Inslee’s vaccination mandate, she added.

For the most part, OMC’s staffers are vaccinated or have initiated the process; Burkhardt expects to have the workforce “mostly intact” by the Oct. 18 deadline.

There is much fatigue and stress, she acknowledged, but there is also resilience, “and there is great patient care happening.”

________

Jefferson County senior reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz@peninsuladaily news.com.

More in News

Peninsula College to continue without budget

Board expects plan in September

An Olympic marmot stands as the star of the show at Hurricane Ridge on Monday. These tourists from Alaska stopped and photographed the creature from a distance as he slowly ate his meal of wildflowers. The marmot is a rodent in the squirrel family and is unique to Washington state. The hibernating mammal’s burrow is only about 50 feet up the paved path away from the parking lot. The group had just photographed deer at the Ridge. (Dave Logan/for Peninsula Daily News)
Olympic marmot

An Olympic marmot stands as the star of the show at Hurricane… Continue reading

Eighth-graders Saydey Cronin and Madelyn Bower stand by a gazebo they and 58 other students helped to build through their Sequim Middle School Core Plus Instruction industrial arts class. The friends were two of a handful of girls to participate in the building classes. (Matthew Nash/Olympic Peninsula News Group)
Middle school students build gazebo for academy

Businesses support project with supplies, flooring and tools

Frank Nicholson and David Martel.
Veterans in Warrior Bike program to pass through Peninsula towns

Community asked to welcome, provide lodging this summer

Special Olympian Deni Isett, center, holds a ceremonial torch with Clallam County Sheriff Brian King, right, accompanied by Lt. Jim Thompson of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribal Police on a leg of the Law Enforcement Torch Run on the Olympic Discovery Trail at Port Angeles City Pier. Tuesday’s segment of the run, conducted mostly by area law enforcement agencies, was organized to support Special Olympics Washington and was to culminate with a community celebration at 7 Cedars Casino in Blyn. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
Carrying the torch

Special Olympian Deni Isett, center, holds a ceremonial torch with Clallam County… Continue reading

Hopefuls for Olympic Medical Center board debate

Talk focuses on funds, partnership

An encapsulated engineered coupler used to repair a January leak. The leak occurred along a similar welded joint near to the current leak. (City of Port Townsend)
Port Townsend considers emergency repair for pipeline

Temporary fix needs longer-term solution, officials say

Traffic to be stopped for new bridge girders

Work crews for the state Department of Transportation will unload… Continue reading

The Peninsula Crisis Response Team responded with two armored vehicles on Tuesday when a 37-year-old Sequim man barricaded himself in a residence in the 200 block of Village Lane in Sequim. (Clallam County Sheriff’s Office)
Man barricaded with rifle arrested

Suspect had fired shots in direction of deputies, sheriff says

An interior view of the 12-passenger, all-electric hydrofoil ferry before it made a demonstration run on Port Townsend Bay on Saturday. Standing in the aisle is David Tyler, the co-founder and managing director of Artemis Technologies, the designer and builder of the carbon fiber boat. (Steve Mullensky/for Peninsula Daily News)
Demonstration provides glimpse of potential for ferry service

Battery-powered hydrofoil could open water travel

Electronic edition of newspaper set for Thursday holiday

Peninsula Daily News will have an electronic edition only… Continue reading

Juliet Shidler, 6, tries on a flower-adorned headband she made with her mother, Rachel Shidler of Port Angeles, during Saturday’s Summertide celebration in Webster’s Woods sculpture park at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center. The event, which marks the beginning of the summer season, featured food, music, crafts and other activities for youths and adults. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
Summertide festival

Juliet Shidler, 6, tries on a flower-adorned headband she made with her… Continue reading