MMH: COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations continue to rise

BATESVILLE, IN — Margaret Mary Health is reporting that, over the last week, their patient positivity rate for COVID-19 and inpatient volumes have continued to increase.

Officials monitoring state models of the latest surge expect things will get worse in the area before positivity rates and hospitalizations start to decline.

The Ripley County COVID positivity rate is 11.36% and remains in “orange” status on the state’s COVID metrics map. Decatur County also stayed in “orange.”

The Franklin County COVID positivity rate is 17.74% and remains in “red.” Dearborn County has now moved to “red.”

Over the past week, the Margaret Mary Health Emergency Department average daily census has been 30% higher than normal daily patient volumes. As a result, patient wait times continue to be longer than normal.

The hospital currently has 23 patients on the Med/Surg floor, with two of those patients in the Special Care Unit. Nine MMH patients are Covid positive. They have not had this many COVID patients on the Med/Surg floor at one time since mid-January. The average age of hospitalized COVID-positive patients since the beginning of August is 59.

(Please see charts for Margaret Mary Health inpatient volumes and percent of Covid inpatients vaccinated vs. unvaccinated)     

In the last week, Margaret Mary Health has had 60 patients who tested positive for Covid, with a current positivity rate of 27.6%.

Margaret Mary Health can provide testing for symptomatic patients at the Main Campus Lab with an order from a primary care provider. Current turnaround times are typically within 48 hours.

Visit mmhealth.org/covid-19 or you can like and follow on the health provider’s Facebook or Instagram pages to stay connected.