BATESVILLE, IN —Margaret Mary Health has provided another update on the area’s COVID-19 situation.
The hospital is located in District 9 on the Indiana Department of Health map (see image). As of Wednesday, there were a total of 73 ICU beds in the district, and 70 of those are full. The district has the highest ICU capacity in the state right now at 96%, and 45% of those are COVID-positive patients.
The Ripley County COVID positivity rate increased to 12.29% and remains in “orange” status. The Franklin County COVID positivity rate increased to 19.94% and remains in “red.”
Over the past week, Margaret Mary Health’s Emergency Department average daily census continues to be significantly higher than normal with a 34% increase from normal daily patient volumes. As a result, patient wait times to be seen and treated continue to be longer than normal.
The hospital is still evaluating elective inpatient surgeries on a day-by-day basis and canceling or rescheduling as needed based on current inpatient volumes.
Margaret Mary Health currently has 28 patients on the Med Surg floor, with four of those patients in the Special Care Unit. Seventeen of those patients are COVID-positive with three of those on ventilators. They have not had this many COVID patients on the Med Surg floor at one time since mid-December 2020. The average age of hospitalized COVID-positive patients since the beginning of August is 60, and the total percent of inpatients not vaccinated continues to trend around 81%. (See charts for MMH inpatient volumes and percent of Covid inpatients vaccinated vs. unvaccinated)
In the last week, the hospital has had had 75 patients who tested positive for COVID, with a current positivity rate of 33.6%. 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 for COVID test results are typically within 48 hours. Patients administered the multiplex test for flu, COVID and RSV may have to wait up to three or four days to receive test results.
