As the state shows a record number of persons hospitalized with COVID-19, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences hospital is limiting elective surgeries to those that can be done outpatient and do not require admission, Vice Chancellor Leslie Taylor said today.
CLARIFICATION: Taylor has called to say she misspoke. The hospital is limiting surgical admissions but has cut them back only by a quarter, not ending them entirely, to preserve bed space.
Last week, the hospital has cumulatively more than 400 clinical and nonclinical personnel with COVID-19 and 340 employees in quarantine. There are 40 patients today with COVID-19, 16 of them in ICU. UAMS has 64 ICU beds total, after adding 12 last week.
As of Sunday, 962 people were being treated at hospitals statewide for the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, an increase of 37 from Saturday and a total that includes 371 in intensive care and 163 on ventilators.
Asked about a tweet yesterday from the wife of an ER doctor at UAMS that the hospital was out of N95 masks in his size, Taylor said the hospital has all sizes of masks, but has switched models and some people need to be fit tested again.
