DCH Coronavirus Update 3-12-21

World’s Best Hospitals 2021

For the second year in a row, Fayette Medical Center has been included in Newsweek’s list of the World’s Best Hospitals.

Newsweek, in partnership with Statista Inc., released its 2021 list of the World’s Best Hospitals this week, and only four Alabama hospitals made the list. Like last year, Fayette Medical Center received the second highest rating in the state after UAB.

Fayette Medical Center, located in Fayette County, has been part of the DCH Health System since 1984 and includes 61 licensed hospital beds and 122 long-term care beds.

“We are so proud of the team at Fayette for this accomplishment,” said Bryan Kindred, president and CEO of the DCH Health System. “The hospital and LTC facility have long been well known in the community for both excellent care and patient satisfaction. However, it is so gratifying to see them be recognized by peers and patients as among the best in the world as they work so hard for the community and are truly deserving of this honor.”

Hospitals included in this year’s list were evaluated on three areas: recommendation from peers, patient experience and key performance indicators.

To see other hospitals that made this year’s list, visit https://www.newsweek.com/best-hospitals-2021.

Congratulations to the Fayette Medical Center team!

Governor Opens Vaccination to More Groups

Earlier today Governor Kay Ivey and the Alabama Department of Public Health announced that starting Monday, March 22, COVID-19 vaccine eligibility will be expanded. Groups that will be included in the extension include “people age 55 and older, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and the population defined as Allocation Phase 1C…”

The DCH registration form is being updated to allow these groups to register for any available time on March 22 or after. The update process should be completed next week. If you are in one of the newly eligible groups, please do not attempt to register for a vaccine at the DCH remote site until the form has been updated and you can select the correct category.

A full list of who is included in phase 1C (see footnotes 2 and 3) can be found here: https://www.alabamapublichealth.gov/covid19vaccine/assets/adph-covid19-vaccination-allocation-plan.pdf.

COVID-19 Information

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 1:19 p.m. on 3/12/21:

• 27 inpatients within the DCH system who are positive for COVID-19.
• Six inpatients who are positive for COVID-19 are being treated in the ICU.
• Five or fewer who are positive for COVID-19 are on ventilators.
• Five or fewer who are positive for COVID-19 are on a BiPAP.
• 8,521 (cumulative) unique positives for COVID-19 tests including results from the ED, triage tent and inpatient. These individuals are not necessarily in the hospital.
• 38,679 (cumulative) unique negatives for COVID-19 at DCH sites.
• 10,306 (cumulative) positive COVID-19 at DCH sites. These individuals are not necessarily in the hospital.
• 71,786 (cumulative) negative tests at DCH sites.
• 2,952 inpatients (cumulative) who were positive for COVID-19 have been discharged.
• 538 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.
• 293 Tuscaloosa County residents (cumulative) who were positive for COVID-19 have died (per the Alabama Department of Public Health).