Beaumont issues dire warning as hospitals deal with flood of COVID cases – WDIV ClickOnDetroit

Nick Monacelli, Reporter
Brandon Carr, Digital Content Producer
Published: January 6, 2022, 7:04 PM
Nick Monacelli, Reporter
Brandon Carr, Digital Content Producer
DETROIT – Beaumont Health is sounding the alarm as the omicron variant is running rampant on its doctors, nurses, and other employees, who have reached their breaking point.
This weekend, the hospital is taking out an ad in an area newspaper to search for help as COVID cases continue to climb.
“We want to tell the community that we are really at a point where it is the worst it has ever been,” said Dr. Jeffrey Fischgrund, Beaumont’s Chief of Clinical Services.
New numbers show Beaumont now has 750 patients with COVID, with 36 being under the age of 18. Officials also said that 65% of the patients are unvaccinated and 430 Beaumont employees are out with the COVID.
The breaking point comes as Beaumont says they first have to scale back on everything that is not an emergency.
“What we really have to do is restrict the inpatient surgery because unless it’s trauma or cancer, or something that has to be done, we don’t want to bring patients in and us a hospital bed that may be needed for a COVID patient or for acute care,” said Fischgrund.
The hospital can’t take transfers as well. An example would be if there is a bad car accident and the closest hospital is not a trauma center.
“They have to transfer that patient someplace for the best possible care,” said Beaumont Director of Infection Prevention & Epidemiology, Dr. Nick Gilpin. “And that is heartbreaking when we say we can’t take it now because we don’t have the resources.”
There is a mental breaking point too.
“I think many of us are at a breaking point right now,” said Gilpin. “We really just want people to take care of themselves, get vaccinated, mask up, do all the things that I’ve talked about over and over again.”
Copyright 2022 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit – All rights reserved.
Nick joined the Local 4 team in February of 2015. Prior to that he spent 6 years in Sacramento covering a long list of big stories including wildfires and earthquakes. Raised in Sterling Heights, he is no stranger to the deep history and pride Detroit has to offer.
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Brandon Carr is a digital content producer for ClickOnDetroit and has been with WDIV Local 4 since November 2021. Brandon is the 2015 Solomon Kinloch Humanitarian award recipient for Community Service.
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