Moving to Yellow Status

Eighty three days ago, Spectrum Health's Command Center went to Red Status. The date was November 18.?We were already 2? months into our delta surge and our positivity rate, hospital census and staffing situation put us in previously uncharted territory. We had made it through our Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 surges without changing to Red Status, but this was different. At the time and over the subsequent two months, we saw our COVID-19 census peak to above 500, our positivity peak to above 40% and our daily number of team members out due to COVID-19 peak to over 800. Over the same period, we saw countless hospitals in West Michigan go on ED diversion as they were unable to care for the influx of sick community members that were overwhelming our region.?

In spite of the fact that we had given our all to care for the community time and time again, we were short-staffed and we were tired. Yet, we always did what was right and cared for our friends, neighbors, family members and each other through what would become our worst and most challenging surge of the pandemic. Those who work in our hospitals took on extra shifts. Many who work in our clinics and other ambulatory sites volunteered to help in hospitals or extended hours in the clinics to help keep patients out of the hospital. Many of our non-clinical team members volunteered to clean patient rooms, bring meals to hospitalized patients and help in our supply warehouses. Many of our team members who had previously served in clinical roles took on hospital shifts to help support the clinical teams.?It has been hard on everyone, but we proved once again why we are here – to care for our communities.

Today is another important day. We are moving our command center back to Yellow Status. We have done this with caution and after ongoing and thorough reviews of all available data locally and across the country. Our COVID-19 inpatient census has steadily decreased over the past six weeks. Our community positivity has also seen consistent decline. The countless overflow patient care areas we have used in our hospitals have been systematically closed. The number of our own team that are out with COVID-19 has decreased by over 75% from our unfortunate high-water mark in early January. Further, with the omicron variant becoming the dominant and highly transmissible circulating virus, many public health experts are speaking about a potential shift of the pandemic in the coming months.?There remains debate about the future of surges. Between widespread vaccination, boosting and immunity from prior infection, we hope not to see as frequent or as severe surges that overwhelm local health care resources. Rather, we may see more seasonal peaks like we do with influenza. While all of this is hard to predict, we do feel confident that the coming weeks should continue to see COVID-19 diminish in our communities and our hospitals.

So, what does this really mean? It means that we are headed in the right direction. It does not mean that we are back to business as usual. But, I remain hopeful that this spring will find us in a better place yet again.