Beaumont Hospital Reports More Than 1,000 Coronavirus Patients

DETROIT, MI — The CEO of a Detroit-area health system with more than 1,000 confirmed patients dealing with the new coronavirus is asking for more accurate and transparent information sharing between hospitals.

As of 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Beaumont Hospital reported having 1,070 coronavirus patients across its southeast Michigan facilities. John Fox, the hospital's CEO, reported the numbers while urging the state to require health systems to share more complete data with each other and be more transparent with the public.

“Some other health systems in our region are also seeing large numbers of COVID-19 patients," Fox said in a press release. "However, without an accurate daily census report that indicates how many COVID-19 confirmed patients are in each hospital and how many in each hospital are still awaiting test results, it is impossible to know how different parts of Michigan are being affected by the virus.

"About half of the patients in Beaumont hospitals that are tested for COVID-19 are confirmed as positive. Even with the limited information we have, we know southeast Michigan is the state’s ground zero for the pandemic."

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Beaumont began sharing daily updates on coronavirus patient totals March 19. It received its first confirmed coronavirus patient March 13. On Sunday, the hospital announced it will begin sharing additional information daily on its website.

“Beaumont believes the state needs to collect accurate, real-time data from all hospitals across Michigan and share it in an open and transparent way, just as we have been doing at Beaumont Health,” Fox said. “As the state’s largest health system, we have been advocating for this both publicly and behind the scenes. This is an unprecedented situation. Faster action is needed to ensure we can care for the influx of COVID-19 patients over the next few weeks and months, in addition to those we serve who need emergency or trauma care, have heart attacks, give birth or need other truly emergent medical services.”

Throughout the pandemic, Beaumont has taken numerous steps to combat COVID-19, protect its staff and serve its patients, such as:

• Creating an online risk assessment tool to help patients determine what kinds of medical care to consider if they have COVID-19 symptoms.
• Discharging as many patients as possible to the next appropriate level of care and cohorting the remaining non-COVID-19 patients.- Identifying the resources, equipment and staffing needed to manage the anticipated volume.- Screening all staff prior to entering a Beaumont facility.
• Restricting visitors at all Beaumont hospital campuses.- Providing appropriate personal protective equipment for staff.- Providing masks to all hospital employees who request one.
• Providing curbside screening at all Beaumont hospitals except Beaumont Hospital, Wayne.- Closing the Emergency Center at Beaumont Hospital, Wayne and dedicating the hospital to care for COVID-19 patients.- Creating a coronavirus hotline to help answer patient’s questions: 800-592-4784.
• Launching a #HealthCareHeroes campaign, including a daily “Home Beams for Health Care Teams” event to honor and recognize the medical team. A new TV commercial honoring the Beaumont team begins airing this weekend.