Ascension Providence hospital in Mobile is treating more COVID-19 patients than at any point in the pandemic’s previous two surges, as the highly contagious delta variant drives hospitalizations sharply upward across South Alabama.
Hospital administrators said 105 COVID-19 patients were being treated at the facility, with ICU beds running short and patients being held in the emergency department. The census was roughly 50% higher than just one week earlier and nearly ten times the level recorded on July 1 — even as the hospital continued to care for its regular patient load.
Care Quality Under Strain
“Those choices of those in the community not to get vaccinated have overwhelmed our health systems across Mobile and across the region,” said Todd Kennedy, president of Ascension Providence. He warned that patients arriving with heart attacks, strokes, and other emergencies were not receiving the same level of care they had received weeks earlier, and that emergency room waits on some days stretched to eight hours. Kennedy stressed that triage still prioritized severity and urged anyone experiencing an emergency to seek care rather than stay home.
Younger Patients, Low Vaccination Rates
About 89% of the hospital’s current COVID-19 patients were unvaccinated, and administrators noted this surge was sending notably younger patients into beds than earlier waves. The hospital encouraged everyone eligible to get vaccinated; only about 52% of its employees had done so at the time. Ascension Health had announced the month before that it would require employees to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.