Over the Aug. 28 weekend, the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation was not able to transfer a critically ill patient out of the region to another hospital because all the state’s critical care beds were full. The patient was not sick with COVID-19 and needed to be transferred for other reasons.
Nearly every hospital ICU bed in the state is filled. On Sept. 1, the state reported its highest COVID-19 new case count since the beginning of the pandemic.
YKHC said that not being able to transfer out a critically ill patient from lack of beds is a first for the hospital. YKHC doesn’t have its own intensive care unit, so it depends on being able to transfer out critically injured or ill patients to other hospitals with more of a capacity to care for them.
YKHC said in an email that “fortunately the patient recovered.”
On Aug. 25, in a podcast, Gov. Mike Dunleavy warned of the state’s impending lack of beds.
“If you get hurt or you get sick and you would normally go to the hospital expecting a certain level of care, you may not get it,” said Dunleavy.
The governor has asked Alaskans to consider getting vaccinated against COVID-19 and masking up, but he has stopped short of urging Alaskans to do so. He has not mandated masks indoors and has not mandated vaccines for state employees. Most COVID-19 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 are not vaccinated. Last week, State Epidemiologist Louisa Castrodale said that unvaccinated individuals are eight times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than vaccinated Alaskans.
YKHC CEO Dan Winkelman said that he hopes that being unable to transfer patients is not the beginning of a new trend. He has asked the governor to require universal masking in indoor public spaces, and to encourage all employers and schools to require vaccination.
