As Springfield hospitals get closer to full capacity for COVID patients, at least one hospital administrator told Springfield City Council Tuesday his facility may soon need to start turning away transfers from rural hospitals. KSMU asked several rural hospitals about the impact this could have on care.
Gary Fulbright is the CEO of Citizens Memorial Hospital in Bolivar. He said the hospital has eight ICU beds and has expanded the number of other beds available. Still, CMH is close to capacity for COVID patients. If the major hospitals in Springfield were to stop taking patients, Fulbright says the hospital will have to look elsewhere for treatment.
“One thing that we would be faced with would be transporting those patients, perhaps to Kansas City or St. Louis," he says. "We have actually had a couple of transports already to Kansas City.”
He says those trips could take a toll on the hospital’s ambulances, as well as on family members who can’t be close to patients.
Another rural hospital, Ozarks Medical Center, is based in Howell County, where cases have been on the rise. OMC did not comment on this story by our deadline.
CoxHealth president and CEO Steve Edwards said Tuesday the COVID ward at CoxSouth in Springfield looked like a “war zone,” with more than 80 COVID-19 patients needing care.
