A Message From Our CEO
August 24, 2021
Our communities are seeing an increase in COVID infections and we are experiencing the effects of that in our hospitals with an increased inpatient census and more people testing positive in our emergency departments, urgent care and physician practices. Hospital resources are being stretched with this surge as our ICU is staying close to full with mostly COVID patients. In fact, this is a challenge for hospitals throughout western North Carolina meaning that we have difficulty transferring patients to other facilities when we don’t have a bed for them. This results in critically ill patients, some with COVID, some not, being held in our emergency departments for long periods while we try to get them admitted.
The overwhelming majority of people with COVID who are being admitted to our hospital are unvaccinated. Most of the current COVID admissions are avoidable if only more people will get vaccinated, so let me encourage you to get vaccinated if you aren’t already. Encourage your family members and friends to get vaccinated. This is critically important so that we don’t imperil our ability to provide health care for all those who need it. By getting vaccinated, we protect the vulnerable in our communities and each other.
I know we are all weary of this pandemic. We all want to get back to “normal”. The way to do that is for everyone who is eligible to be vaccinated.
Steve Heatherly
CEO
Swain Community Hospital