7 Fall/Winter 2021-22 But at the beginning of July, COVID cases almost seemed like they were leveling off, if not downright declining. Vaccines were kicking in and turning the tide. According to the Oregon Health Authority, cases around the state were down to just a couple hundred a day in early July from an April daily high of more than 1,000. At one point that month, Adventist had no COVID patients in critical care and only single digits in its medical-surgical unit. Erdman could sense the difference. “I think we were feeling pretty good about where the direction of COVID cases was heading,” she said. “We were feeling like we were coming out of this and had actually started tackling a few non-COVID-related projects.” Then came the Delta variant—and out went that sense of relief. Cases in Oregon jumped throughout the second half of July: 777 on the 19th, 993 on the 26th, 1,076 on the 30th. August’s first day started off with more than 2,000. The COVID summer surge was on. “Toward the end of July, we, like many other health care organizations across Oregon and across the nation, saw the steady increase in COVID patients and then a full-blown surge by the end of August into September,” Erdman said. “It felt a little bit daunting, especially at a time that we thought we were turning the corner.” As a state, Oregon has fared pretty well with COVID, all things considered. But it was not spared the summer surge, which was driven by the Delta variant, infections among the unvaccinated, and, in some parts of the state, relaxed masking and social distancing measures. At the height of the surge, cases and hospitalizations were the highest they’d been during the entire pandemic. Nowhere were the impacts of the surge more tangible than in Oregon’s hospitals and health systems. At one point in early September, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported that 93% of Oregon’s hospital beds for adults were full and there were just 62 intensive care unit beds in the entire state. Hospitals struggled to care for a wave of new COVID patients, many of whom were unvaccinated. Many of those admitted patients were sicker, bodies unable to fight the ravages of the disease. Many of those patients stayed in the hospital longer, putting a further strain on bed availability. Resources wore thin, doctors, nurses, and staff burned out. But hospitals and the people who work in them also rallied and rose “When you see signs about heroes, the health care workers I’ve been around are absolutely who those are for. They are heroes.” Brian Sims, President & CEO, Good Shepherd Health Care System Hermiston to the challenge. They found ways to help people beat COVID and head home healthy. And they became stronger in ways that will help them do even better in the future when another surge rolls through. “When the chips were down, people really stepped up,” said Brian Sims, president and CEO at Good Shepherd Health Care System in Hermiston. “When you see signs about heroes, the health care workers I’ve been around are absolutely who those are for. They are heroes.” Heavy Load Even though hospitals and health systems in Oregon had had more than a year of COVID care under their belts by the time the summer surge hit, the onslaught of patients felt overwhelming. At Good Shepherd, there were times when all 25 of its beds—and six more in the ICU—were spoken for. “When the Delta variant hit us, it hit us hard,” Sims said. “We were beyond capacity in terms of bed space. Our ER was packed. And we couldn’t transfer people out because there were no beds to transfer them to. It was a true challenge.” continues
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