Healthcare leaders across the state are warning of a coming COVID surge but in the Upper Peninsula, those concerns are magnified by smaller hospital capacity.
In the spring, COVID-19 was clustered around hotspot locations.
This time, hospitals worry that the surge is happening everywhere - meaning that hospitals with overflow patients might have nowhere to take them.
David Jahn is with War Memorial Hospital in Sault Sainte Marie. He said the hospital can only take 15 COVID patients. So far, they have five.
“If every hospital in the state is seeing these surges and inpatient and doesn’t have room for those patients like they did in the spring that creates another issue,” he said. “There are only so many beds in the state.”
Jahn said his biggest concern is that if their hospital overflows and the nearest hospitals in the region also overflow it could mean much longer trips for ambulances.
“Even if we went to creating field hospitals like they did in Detroit for a short period of time there’s not a staff to staff those,” he said. “You’re putting every community in a tough situation. There’s only so much staff and right now our staff is getting fatigued and tired.”
On top of all of that - Jahn said the problem could become even worse if nurses and doctors start falling ill.
“No hospital in the state is flush with nurses and doctors,” he said. “If they start getting sick and can’t work for ten days then how do you continue to operate at the levels you could because they’re getting sick.”
Jahn said the best thing people can do is wear masks and social distance.
And, he said anyone in need of medical care should not hesitate to visit a hospital.