GREENSBORO, N.C. — The number of people in the hospital fighting coronavirus continue to rise.
More than 3,300 across North Carolina, as of Tuesday.
Beds are filling up and Cone Health facilities are seeing their highest patient count since the start of the pandemic.
Medical Director at Cone Health, Dr. Jeffery McLung said 200 patients are currently in their COVID-19 unit.
“We already have a strain on the system because of the usual increase in volume we see in the winter time anyway,” Dr. McLung said. “COVID really adds to that.”
Their Green Valley Campus has reached its limit for coronavirus patients.
Those who come to the Greensboro hospital are moved to other hospitals across the Triad.
Cone Health's analytics department predicted they'd reach 200 by December.
“These patients are sick they require a lot of close care,” Dr. McLung said. “Critical resources like respiratory therapist and nurse techs, they're in very short supply right now.”
On top of staffing, space to care for patients is a huge concern.
The impact from the holiday has yet to hit us, and Dr. MClung said its hard to prepare for.
“The numbers are going up and up and up and no amount of preparations no amount of planning or strategy can prepare you for an infinite number of patients,” Dr. McLung said.
But that's not stopping them from coming up with plans where extreme measures maybe taken to care for the community.
“If pushed far enough people may receive care in environments that are less than ideal like being stuck in an emergency bed for hours or even other areas like doubling up in patient care rooms,” Dr. McLung said. We don't want to do that.”
Cone could be at 300 patients in January based on its analytics department.
Across their system, they can hold up to 900 patients.