Arizona hospitals stretched to the limit

Banner Health’s Arizona hospitals, which make up one of the largest health care systems in the state, are being stretched to the limit, Marjorie Bessel, the company’s chief clinical officer, said in a press conference Tuesday.

Bessel warned that some of Banner Health’s hospitals are running above 100 percent capacity, with the company’s health care system more strained now than at any time since the earliest days of the pandemic.

“We are more stretched now than we have been since the start of the pandemic,” Bessel said. “ICUs are where we are experiencing the most significant strain on our resources.”

Around 36 percent of patients in Banner Health hospitals are there as a result of COVID-19 infections. Eighty-eight percent of the patients being treated for the virus in the company’s health care system are unvaccinated.

“My top ask of the community at this time is for all who are eligible to get vaccinated and your booster if you have not yet done so,” Bessel said. “This is the best way to prevent serious COVID illness that requires hospital-level care.”

Banner Health has had to postpone nonmedically necessary surgeries and limit new patients due to its hospitals being overwhelmed.

The company’s health care system has also faced staffing shortages, as many of its staff nurses have retired, left the field or moved to non-bedside roles, prompting it to call on traveling nurses for assistance.

Bessel said Banner Health’s predictive models show that the number of patients will keep increasing until they peak in mid-January. Those models, however, don’t account for the omicron variant that has recently made its way into the U.S.