THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2021
BAKER CITY HERALD — A3

HOSPITAL
stages,” Dunten said. “We
didn’t get hit hard here. Now
we are.”
Continued from A1
Like Richards, Dunten
advocates for everyone eligible
Richards and Priscilla Lynn,
to be vaccinated.
president and chief nursing
Dunten said it frustrates
offi cer at Saint Alphonsus in
her that some people don’t
Baker City.
trust her advice
Lynn said that
regarding vaccines,
several of the
but they would trust
COVID-19 patients
her to give potentially
transferred during
life-saving treatment.
August from the
In addition to
Baker City hospital
seeing more people
to Saint Alphonsus
who have serious
Medical Center in
Lynn
symptoms from a
Boise, because they
COVID-19 infection,
were sick enough
Richards said there have been
to need a higher level of care,
more people coming to the
were not vaccinated.
emergency room who have
The average age of these
severely ill COVID-19 patients COVID-19 but don’t need to be
has also dropped signifi cantly admitted because their illness
is relatively mild.
over the past several weeks,
He said that on one day last
Lynn said.
week, 12 to 15 people came
Earlier in the pandemic,
to the emergency room, all of
she said, a majority of CO-
them positive for COVID-19.
VID-19 patients were 60 or
At times, the Baker City
older.
But with vaccination rates hospital has treated multiple
COVID-19 patients for ex-
higher among older county
residents — 61.8% of residents tended periods, Lynn said.
That has an outsized effect
60 and older are vaccinated,
compared with 37.6% of those on the hospital’s staffi ng capac-
ity, Richards said. Nurses and
between 12 and 59 — Lynn
said the Baker City hospital is doctors who treat COVID-19
seeing few COVID-19 patients patients have to wear full pro-
tective equipment, and it’s dif-
60 and older.
fi cult and time-consuming for
“This has become a pan-
them to change into and out of
demic of young and unvacci-
that to shift from a COVID-19
nated people,” she said.
patient to others who don’t
According to the Baker
have the virus, Richards said.
County Health Department,
Hospital staff have also had
of the county’s 189 cases from
to miss work due to a positive
Sept. 1-12, more than half
test or because they had close
— about 58.5% — were in
contact with someone who
residents from age 10 to 49.
tested positive, Lynn said.
During that period, about
Richards said it’s fortunate
17.5% of cases were in people
that Saint Alphonsus hospitals
60 and older.
in Boise and Nampa, as was
People nine and younger,
the case earlier in the pandem-
who aren’t eligible to be vac-
cinated, accounted for slightly ic, have been able to continue
more than 16% of the county’s accepting for treatment most
Baker County patients who
cases.
are severely ill.
Recently, multiple CO-
But that situation is “tenu-
VID-19 patients with severe
ous,” Lynn said.
symptoms have been trans-
Capacity at the larger Boise
ferred from Baker City to
and Nampa hospitals in the
the Boise or Nampa hospital
Saint Alphonsus system is
because they need a higher
limited, she said, and each day
level of care.
Ashley Dunten, a registered offi cials at all hospitals in the
system, including Baker City,
nurse at Saint Alphonsus in
have a phone conference to
Baker City who has treated
many COVID-19 patients, said discuss the situation.
“So far we’ve been able to
the situation at the hospital
has been vastly different since navigate that,” Lynn said. “But
we are very concerned that
late July.
For most of the pandemic, there could be a day when
we have to keep a critically ill
Dunten said, the situation at
the Baker City hospital wasn’t COVID-19 patient in Baker.”
Dunten, who coordinates
especially hectic, in large part
because the hospital routinely patient transfers from the
sent COVID-19 patients who Baker City hospital, said that
for most of the pandemic, she
needed hospital care to Boise
had no trouble fi nding a bed
or Nampa.
But the recent substantial for COVID-19 patients at
increase in infections in county larger hospitals.
But recently a patient had
residents has had a major ef-
fect on operations at the Baker to stay for eight hours in the
emergency room at Baker City
City hospital, Dunten said.
before she could arrange a
Both she and Richards
transfer.
said the hospital has treated
considerably more COVID-19
patients, and for longer peri-
More people seeking tests
ods, than in the past.
Veronica Crowder, a physi-
cian assistant at the Baker
“This isn’t like the early
City hospital, has worked
in the drive-thru testing
clinic since the beginning of
the pandemic.
Crowder said she’s been
testing many more people
over the past several weeks,
with 25 to 30 people per day
being common, compared
with around 10 per day prior
to the surge in infections.
And she said a much
higher percentage of the
tests have been positive for
COVID-19 — 30% to 50%
recently.
“It’s a huge change from
what it was,” Crowder said.
Statistics from the Oregon
Health Authority illustrate
the trends Crowder cited.
For the week of July 11-17,
there were 119 COVID-19
tests given in Baker County,
and just two of those — 1.7%
— were positive.
The test positivity rate
rose to 6.3% for the week July
18-24, and to 29.8% the week
July 25-31.
The weekly positivity rate
ranged from 15.5% to 19.3%
during August.
The numbers of tests per
week, meanwhile, more than
doubled, from 160 per week
from late June through early
August, to 394 tests per week
from early August through
the fi rst week of September.
Another change Crowder
has noticed in the past sev-
eral weeks is that almost all
the people who show up for
the rapid test — she typically
has results within one to two
hours — have some sort of
symptom.
Some of those people have
a common cold or other ail-
ment rather than COVID-19,
she said.
Earlier in the pandemic,
she said, many people who
wanted to be tested didn’t feel
sick, but they just wanted to
fi nd out whether they might
have an asymptomatic case of
COVID-19.
In common with Richards
and Dunten in the Saint
Alphonsus emergency room,
Crowder has also noticed a
signifi cant drop in the aver-
age age of people who show
up for tests, with more people
younger than 50 than was the
case earlier in the pandemic.
During the second week of
September, Crowder said she
also tested many children.
Besides testing, Crowder
also orders the administra-
tion of monoclonal antibody
treatments to COVID-19
patients. This treatment in-
volves an infusion of antibod-
ies that can bolster the body’s
immune system to combat
the virus, Crowder said.
The treatment can reduce
the severity of symptoms, she
said, particularly in patients
who are at greater risk of
complications due to obesity,
diabetes or other factors.
Crowder said all the
people to whom she has given
COUNCIL
they had talked about poten-
tially was not fi ling a lawsuit
or an injunction but to go
down the route of defi ance
where you very calmly step
into that OHA, OSHA license
insured issues and fi ne issues
and then fi ght that that way,”
McQuisten said. “I’m told that
that’s far cheaper than fi ling
suit.”
Dixon said she had been
on a Zoom call with Kevin
Mannix last December and
found him knowledgeable in
the area the Council is dealing
with now.
Mannix, a former guberna-
torial candidate, represented a
group of intervenor-plaintiffs
in the lawsuit fi led May 6,
2020, in Baker County chal-
lenging Brown’s executive
orders in the early stage of
the pandemic.
term that continues through
Dec. 31, 2022.
Continued from A1
Two candidates — Boston
Colton and Michael Meyer —
didn’t receive any votes during
Councilors will cast bal-
Tuesday’s Council meeting.
lots again at their Sept. 28
In other business Tues-
meeting in hopes of breaking
day, councilors reached a
the deadlock. Mayor Kerry
consensus to participate in a
McQuisten said the city will
conference call with Salem
continue to accept applica-
attorney Kevin Mannix’s offi ce
tions in the meantime.
to discuss joining with other
Daugherty, a former city
councilor, received votes from cities and counties in a lawsuit
challenging Gov. Kate Brown’s
Councilors Shane Alderson,
mandate that health care
Jason Spriet and Heather
workers and school employees
Sells.
be vaccinated against CO-
Mayor Kerry McQuisten
and Councilors Joanna Dixon VID-19 by Oct. 18.
“It’s nothing more at this
and Johnny Waggoner Sr.
point than a conference call
voted for Hughes.
presentation,” City Manager
Four people applied to
Jon Cannon said.
replace Lynette Perry, who
McQuisten said the legal
resigned in August for health
reasons. Perry was elected in advice is free.
“I know one of the things
November 2018 to a four-year
tering tests and treatments
such as antibody infusion,
Crowder said she also has
conversations with people.
“I feel that people are
more open to talk to me
about things than they were
earlier,” Crowder said. “We
usually have a good dialogue.”
She encourages residents,
even if they think they have
a cold, to come to the Saint
Alphonsus clinic for a rapid
test.
“I would rather someone
come to talk to me and have
a cold rather than staying
away and going around in the
community and potentially
exposing people,” Crowder
said.
Richards emphasizes that
people who are not experienc-
ing an emergency but are
concerned that they have
COVID-19 should use the
local nonemergency testing
options.
The symptom he has seen
Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald that correlates most directly
to a COVID-19 emergency is
Veronica Crowder, a physician assistant at Saint
shortness of breath.
Alphonsus Medical Center-Baker City, dons her
Lynn said that although
protective clothing on Friday, Sept. 10 before testing
the goal is to avoid over-
residents for COVID-19 at the hospital’s drive-thru
whelming the emergency
testing clinic.
department and to prevent
the antibody treatment are
Those 40 cases accounted for asymptomatic or mildly ill
unvaccinated.
COVID-19 patients from
11.1% of the county’s total
She’s also seen the ef-
cases from Aug. 1 through
potentially bringing the virus
fects of vaccination among
Sept. 5.
to the hospital, she wants to
people who subsequently are
Crowder said people she’s ensure that people with true
infected with COVID-19 —
medical emergencies don’t
tested who have had break-
what are known as break-
through infections have had hesitate to come to the emer-
through cases.
gency room.
relatively minor symptoms,
“That’s what we’re here
including residents who have
Baker County has had
for — any medical emer-
risk factors such as obesity
55 breakthrough cases, 40
gency,” she said. “Our doors
of those reported since Aug. or diabetes.
are open.”
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