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BURLINGTON — The University of Vermont Medical Center is awaiting test results from two additional patients who might have the COVID-19 virus. That comes one day after the hospital confirmed its first presumptive case.
Hospital leadership held a press conference Thursday afternoon to discuss the pandemic and the first presumptive case at the hospital, a man in his 70s from Chittenden County.
The Department of Health is doing an “extensive trace” of the individuals’ history, trying to identify possible exposure to others, said Dr. Steve Leffler, the president of UVM Medical Center. He said the patient who tested positive is currently in critical condition in isolation in the hospital’s intensive care unit.
The hospital is bound by federal health privacy law and can’t release additional information about the patient, Leffler said.
Leffler said the hospital has been preparing for its first case of coronavirus for weeks.
“We are prepared to take care of more patients as they present, and we are modifying our policies as appropriate for where we are in this epidemic,” Leffler said.
The hospital has adjusted its visitor policies to only allow two guests per patient and instituted policies eliminating meetings with more than 25 people, eliminating work-related travel and discouraging personal travel.
A man in Bennington County tested positive Saturday, the first case in the state. He is hospitalized in Bennington.
Dr. John Brumsted, the CEO of the UVM Health Network, said those concerned they might have COVID-19 should call their primary care physician first.
“Unless you are acutely ill and in distress, we want you to call first so we can make sure we are prepared for you coming, so we can have our workers, or the EMTs, or the people in a clinic not exposed by you coming and asking a question,” he said.
Leffler said that those without a primary care doctor should go to urgent care. But if a concerned individual does not have recent travel to high-risk areas or clear exposure to a patient confirmed to have the virus, it is unlikely that individual will be tested, Leffler said.
“We have a very robust process using our primary care docs and infectious disease docs to pick who should be tested right now,” Leffler said. “That will change as the number of people in Vermont grows, but that’s how we’re doing it now.”
In response to Leffler’s statement directing those without a primary care physician to urgent care centers, an official in that sector said such facilities are not equipped to diagnose or treat any suspected case of COVID-19.
Joseph Sicard, director of clinical operations at ClearChoiceMD urgent care, said: “Unlike hospitals, urgent care centers are not equipped to safely diagnose and isolate suspected COVID-19 patients. We do not have isolation rooms with negative air exchanges, nor do we have adequate supplies of the recommended personal protective equipment (PPE) due to massively disrupted global supply chains.”
Dr. Tim Lahey, an infectious disease doctor at UVMMC, said that the number of cases is likely to grow and the hospital wants to be best prepared for those who most need treatment.
“If somebody is home with the sniffles, and feeling kind of tired and not great but otherwise safe at home, it is better for them to stay home so that the vulnerable, elderly, immunocompromised people who we know are most at risk for this can come in and they will have physicians and nurses ready and capable of taking care of them,” he said.
Lahey said that the hospital now has the capability to test patients whose physicians want them to be tested. He said that earlier in the epidemic, the hospital had a limited number of tests and attempted to use them sparingly.
“The availability is improving every day,” he said. “So we have less of a need to be super sparing with the test kits. But we still want to be really strategic about how we use them, for other reasons.”
Lahey said the hospital wants to avoid an overflow of unnecessary tests from people who do not need to be tested. But the hospital does have the ability to test all of those who need to be tested, he said.
“We have the capacity to do dozens and dozens of tests every day, and that capacity is changing every day,” he said.
The hospital is also making plans to test people outside of their facilities, Lahey said. More details about those plans will be released when they are finalized, he said.
As of Thursday afternoon, 97 people have tested negative and 212 are being monitored by the Department of Health.
The hospital has six rooms set aside for COVID-19 patients, Leffler said, but has more capacity if necessary.
Leffler said it was very likely that there are other cases in the community, as 80% of cases lead to just mild symptoms.
“It’s out there, broader than the two people who are in the hospital,” he said.
Brumsted said Vermonters should focus on washing their hands, avoiding close contact with others and staying home if they are feeling ill.
Clarification: This story has been updated to include information about urgent care centers and diagnosing and treating coronavirus cases.
