DCH Coronavirus Update 12-17-20

DCH Administers its First Vaccines

DCH Health System began administering the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine today. Two sites on the DCH Regional Medical Center campus are being used to administer the vaccine. The first is the Employee Health office and is primarily for employees. The second is the new remote screening (and now vaccination) building just west of the hospital. This site is being used initially to administer vaccines to community physicians and first responders.

Blake Lovely, MD, emergency room physician and medical director for the emergency department services at DCH, answered questions and agreed to be filmed by the news as he received the first vaccine at the remote site.

In the link below, Dr. Lovely and Susan Windham, a nurse practitioner at West Alabama Urology, shared their thoughts on why they decided to get the vaccine.

https://youtu.be/KBvPUwqQoO0

Troopers Deliver Teddy Bears

Alabama State Troopers came to DCH Regional Medical Center today to deliver teddy bears to pediatric patients and bring a little extra cheer into their lives during a difficult time. The Alabama State Trooper Association provides the stuffed animals and the trooper bear tradition has been going on across the state for more than 30 years.

Normally the troopers would visit with pediatric patients to deliver the stuffed animals personally. Due to COVID-19 visitation restrictions, the Troopers instead met with nurses from the pediatrics and well-baby units to deliver the bears.

Thank you Alabama State Troopers!

Testing and Confirmed Cases

To protect patient privacy, DCH has established a minimum threshold of five for reporting numbers of inpatients with laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19.

DCH Health System internal counts as of 4:12 p.m. on 12/17/20:

• 153 inpatients within the DCH system who are positive for COVID-19.
• 33 inpatients who are positive for COVID-19 are being treated in the ICU.
• 11 who are positive for COVID-19 are on ventilators.
• 10 who are positive for COVID-19 are on a BiPAP.
• 5,933 (cumulative) unique positives for COVID-19 tests including results from the ED, triage tent and inpatient. These individuals are not necessarily in the hospital.
• 31,437 (cumulative) unique negatives for COVID-19 at DCH sites.
• 7,208 (cumulative) positive COVID-19 at DCH sites. These individuals are not necessarily in the hospital.
• 52,916 (cumulative) negative tests at DCH sites.
• 1,740 inpatients (cumulative) who were positive for COVID-19 have been discharged.
• 309 inpatients (cumulative) who were positive for COVID-19 have died at DCH. This is not an indication of the cause of death, only that the individuals were positive for COVID-19 at the time of death.
• 147 Tuscaloosa County residents (cumulative) who were positive for COVID-19 have died (per the Alabama Department of Public Health).