COVID hospitalizations increasing, impacts on area hospitals

MIAMI VALLEY — There are more COVID-19 patients in the hospital currently than at any other point during the pandemic, according to the Ohio Hospital Association.

As numbers climb, hospitals in the Miami Valley are on the brink of crisis.

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With an additional 40 National Guard members deploying to area hospitals the answer to when those hospitals could see some relief is very soon — but it’s unsure if it will be enough.

News Center 7′s Candace Price spoke with area hospitals on how the increase in hospitalizations is impacting them.

In the Miami Valley area, about one in six people who are in the hospital have COVID; in Northeast Ohio, that number is one and three.

Chief Medical Officer of Miami Valley Hospital Roberto Colon said he fears the Miami Valley could be in a similar situation as Northeast Ohio.

Colon said that some hospitals in Northeast Ohio have completely outgrown their capacity. Making it difficult to provide the standard of care people are accustomed to.

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He said he fears that this will happen to hospitals in the region if they do not limit the number of patients that continue to come in with COVID, or find a way to stretch their resources.

In an email Wednesday afternoon, a spokesperson at Premier Health said they expect members of the National Guard to arrive Thursday for orientation and begin working in some hospitals possibly as early as this weekend.

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