Some Broward Hospitals See Flattening In Number Of Patients Treated For COVID-19
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – As health officials report Broward is seeing a flattening or slight decrease in COVID-19 cases, county commissioners are hearing the tale of two local hospital systems.
At Broward Health, some encouraging news.
"We are seeing a decline," Broward Health CEO Gino Santorio told commissioners on a conference call. "We were, at the peak of the second surge, at 285 admissions. We're down to about 240 right now."
At Memorial Heathcare System in South Broward, the scene is very different.
"Unlike Broward Health," explained Memorial Healthcare System Aurelio Fernandez, "we're at today, this morning, 634 positive COVID patients, 297 were in ICU. Just off phone with Jarod Moskowitz, director of emergency management in Tallahassee, to secure 25 additional ventilators. Out of the 297, we have 96 patients on vents these are all COVID related."
Fernandez explained how system wide they've added nearly 450 beds by converting conference rooms, recovery rooms, anything they can, into bed space.
They're also getting 300 nurses sent. He said they need it as people from hard hit Miami-Dade head north for care.
"One of our hospitals, Miramar, last Tuesday I believe, we had 59% of all of our patients in that hospital were coming from Miami-Dade County and at Memorial West it was 48%," he said.
At a commission work shop, health care leaders urged commissioners to get tougher on enforcement, not just going after businesses.
"We could enact a policy that Miami-Dade has," warned Broward County Administrator Bertha Henry. "This is, you walk out that door, irrespective of what the situation is, a mask you have it. If you don't, it's a civil citation."
Commissioners are also concerned that so far only 87 citations have been issued by just seven of Broward's 31 cities.
"You can't just give out warnings to businesses that are violating this and contributing substantially to transmission of the virus," said District 7 Commissioner Tim Ryan.
County Administrator Bertha Henry said if cities don't do it on their own, the county is ready to step in.
"We are gearing up, stepping up, hiring code officers to go into these areas where we think there are problems. If we're not comfortable with what's happening, we have the ability to do that," Henry said.
One thing heavily stressed by health officials is to take precautions to stop the spread at home.
The health department reports anywhere between 60 and 80% of coronavirus cases come from one family member getting it and spreading around to family.
