Washington Hospitals 'Very Full' As COVID-19 Delta Cases Rise

SEATTLE, WA — The Washington State Hospital Association is urging hospitals across the state to require staff members and other employees to be fully vaccinated at a time when hospitalizations across the state continue to rise as coronavirus cases involving the delta variant increase.

Hospital association CEO Cassie Sauer said in a news conference Monday that hospitalizations across Washington remain high due to the variant, which Sauer said remains quite contagious as cases continue to spike.

Health officials said during Monday’s conference that the delta variant is two to four times more transmissible than original forms of the virus, a concerning situation especially for those who are not yet vaccinated. Officials said that all of the vaccines are highly effective against all of the variants, which makes it important for the unvaccinated to get inoculated.

Sauer said Monday that the surge in confirmed COVID-19 cases across the state remains concerning, especially with many Washington residents still choosing not to be vaccinated. Sauer said officials are waiting for data from the state regarding how many people hospitalized with COVID-19 have been at least partially vaccinated.

She said that those who are getting sick after being diagnosed with the virus have not yet been vaccinated, while those who have been vaccinated but who are diagnosed with the virus are not getting sick.

She said with stress levels rising, the hospital association’s board of directors is urging hospitals and health care providers to require vaccinations among their workers. The plea comes at a time when hospitals across Washington are filling up, with intensive care units seeing an uptick in traffic, and when other hospital units have patients who had medical procedures delayed from previous COVID-19-related restrictions.

"Right now, it’s pretty universal that every hospital is quite full," Sauer said at the news conference.

“It’s very demoralizing for the staff in the intensive care units and critical care units who are having to care for the very sick COVID patients. It is scary, emotionally draining and physically demanding work to care for COVID patients,” Sauer added.

At the start of the pandemic, certain regions of the state such as Kirkland, Bellevue and other areas experienced high hospitalization rates. But because of COVID-19, extreme heat, smoke from wildfires, trauma-related accidents and other incidents, state officials have seen a spike in hospitalizations.

Data from state health officials indicates that hospitalizations spiked in July, when the rate grew to 680 cases with COVID-19 patients between July 11-24. As of July 14, at least 70 percent of Washington residents have been at least partially vaccinated.

At UW Medicine, COVID-19 patient numbers grew to the mid-20s as of Monday, officials said, just two weeks after there were only 10 coronavirus patients in UW Medicine facilities. At other statewide health systems, COVID-19 cases tripled over the past two weeks, going from the mid-20s to the mid-60s as of Monday. At Multicare health system, there were more than 100 COVID-19 patients as of the end of last week, an increase of 50 percent from recent weeks.

"The line is pretty steep, and it doesn't look like it's going down anytime soon," Washington State Medical Association President Dr. Nathan Schlicher said Monday.

Sauer said that concern about hospital staffing levels has been a reason why hospitals may be hesitant about requiring vaccinations. However, officials said Monday that by remaining unvaccinated, health care workers face a bigger issue of being exposed to COVID-19 patients, which would create a much bigger problem.

UW Medicine is requiring all employees to be fully vaccinated by September with the exception of those who have medical conditions or religious reasons that prevent them from being vaccinated, officials with the health system said Monday.

However, local health officials remain concerns about the rate at which hospitals continue to see more traffic. According to data from state health officials, hospitalizations are more in line with where they were at the end April, when vaccinations weren’t where they are today.

Last week, Dr. Jeff Duchin, King County’s medical officer, also pushed for hospitals to require employees to be vaccinated. Officials from UW Medicine have reported that 90 percent of employees have been vaccinated while 70 percent of staff members at Multicare Health Systems have been vaccinated.

“It is important because we want to stop the spread of COVID,” Sauer said. “We want it not to be spread to be workers within our hospitals.”