BOISE, Idaho — To put it simply, the situation in intensive-care units across the Treasure Valley is very serious right now.
“I’m a therapist that works in all areas of the hospital, and I had to be pulled from my floor assignment into the intensive care unit just because we had patients coming in and being put on ventilators. We are just having to pull staff into the most immediate needed areas,” said Nancy Roberts, a respiratory therapist with St. Luke’s
On Thursday, Roberts was able to step away for a few minutes to talk about the situation they are seeing while working in the ICU. We last checked in with Roberts last fall as Idaho ICUs began to fill up with very sick COVID patients. She said it is just as serious now, but that it does have a different feel.
“It’s a younger demographic now that we are seeing coming in, and they are needing intubation and a ventilator and ventilator management. It seems like 35-to 45-year-olds are kind of our really sick patients, whereas the first go-round it seemed to be people more in their 70s,” Roberts said.
Dr. Meghan McInerney, the ICU Medical Director at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, said she agrees -- things are getting just as serious as they were late last year but now it feels different.
“It feels very different to me because it is preventable now. So, it’s a very different feel in terms of the age of the patients coming in. They are getting really sick, there are a lot of people on ventilators and they are not vaccinated," McInerney said. "It didn’t have to be this way and so with that, the air in the ICU is a little bit defeated. You know, the nurses, the doctors, the respiratory therapists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, all the members of our team are feeling a little more deflated with this round of a COVID surge because it is a preventable illness at this point."
In terms of morale, Roberts said the situation is taking a toll, especially on less-experienced employees.
“It’s rough. You leave here having worked a very hard shift and trying to take care of people, and not everybody makes it. So it does, absolutely, wear you down. Just knowing that we are having a hard time keeping staff and having new people hire on those are realities, so we are doing what we can do,” Roberts said.
McInerney said the staff at Saint Alphonsus feels similar.
“I think my concerns as the ICU Medical Director are less about are we going to run out of ventilators, but more about are we going to run out of staffing. Are we going to have enough nursing staff to take care of these patients? We are already having to setup and line up backup schedules for the physicians, but we just don’t have endless amounts of nurses to help take care of these patients,” McInerney said.
ICU beds in the Treasure Valley are getting tougher to find, and there is fear that very difficult decisions will soon need to be made.
“Currently, we are not turning patients away, I want to keep saying that -- if somebody has an emergency or somebody is having an issue that needs to be evaluated, do not hesitate. Please come. We will take care of you, but we are getting pretty worried about the future if we keep going in this direction,” McInerney said.
The brutal truth, the current COVID situation is trending toward dangerous territory very quickly for the medical community to handle.
“We are seeing a lot of people dying, again, which is unfortunate. We are seeing patients take a turn very quickly. I’ve personally had patients on our regular floor and within two hours I’m asking for them to the ICU,” Roberts said.
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