Parkview Chief MD outlines status after COVID-19 deaths in Pueblo

PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) -- KRDO News Channel 13's Dan Beedie had a one on one conversation with Parkview Medical Center's Chief Medical Doctor Sandeep Vijan on Tuesday to discuss COVID-19 numbers in Pueblo, Parkview's capacity, the newly announced vaccine, and a number of other COVID-19 related topics, just after the Colorado Department of Health and Environment reported five single-day deaths in Pueblo County.

The large death toll in one day comes at a time when COVID-19 case numbers and hospitalizations are rising. However, health experts and the Governor say the mortality rate for those with the virus is falling.

Dan Beedie: How many people are currently being treated for COVID-19 at Parkview? How many are on ventilators?

Dr. Sandeep Vijan: There are 60 patients with COVID in the hospital today, and four patients are on ventilators.

Dan Beedie: Yesterday, it was announced five people died from COVID-19 related symptoms in Pueblo County within 24 hours. Is that the largest death toll in a single day within the county so far? And what does that say about the virus in Pueblo?

Dr. Sandeep Vijan: As far as my recollection, that is probably the highest death toll we've seen [in a single day]. Not all of those deaths were at Parkview Medical Center --three were at Parkview and the remaining two were at St. Mary Corwin. Pueblo has an older more vulnerable patient population. A large percentage of our population live in nursing homes and assisted living facilities with chronic medical conditions. As COVID surges in the community, they're the ones that will suffer the most. Those are the deaths you are seeing.

Dan Beedie: Is Parkview prepared for the virus to get worse in the community in the coming weeks and months?

Dr. Sandeep Vijan: Parkview has been planning for a surge of COVID-19 through the summer and fall. We have a variety of contingency plans to figure out where we can care for patients, how we could care for patients, where we can improve resources to improve capacity. All of that is very fluid. I would describe it like a jigsaw puzzle, trying to match the patient with the right level of care in the right location in the hospital. That is something we huddle on and debrief on daily.

Dan Beedie: What is Parkview's capacity? How many COVID-19 patients can you provide care to?

Dr. Sandeep Vijan: We can look after 220 medical service patients in the hospital. In addition to that, we can take 42 patients in the ICUs. In addition to that, we can expand 30 beds outside those two domains to care for patients, so that's what capacity looks like for us. But we don't just care for COVID-19, we care for cancer; we care for trauma; we care for heart patients. The real question is what is our capacity to care for everything. We can take an onslaught of COVID patients should we need to, but resources are finite. We have a physical building. We can't care for people in the parking lot. But we are confident we have the capacity to provide care for the people.

Dan Beedie: What would happen should Parkview Medical Center become overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients?

Dr. Sandeep Vijan: Parkview can get very creative. We can explore opportunities with our other Colorado Hospital Partners to see who has capacity. That's our line of thinking today. We don't even want to acknowledge that day will come.

Dan Beedie: Monday, Gov. Jared Polis mentioned that patients are spending less time in hospitals' care. Is that true in Pueblo?

Dr. Sandeep Vijan: If they come [to the hospital] early, and they don't have large numbers of underlying medical conditions, they usually spend about six days in the hospital, and are healthy enough to go home. If they are elderly, frail, have medical conditions, or need to be in an ICU, then that can expand to two-three weeks in the hospital. That's definitely better than March and April, when universally everyone spent three weeks.

Dan Beedie: Are you saying we are better off when it comes to caring for COVID-19 patients today then back at the beginning of the pandemic?

Dr. Sandeep Vijan: Yeah. The good news is today we have a number of things we didn't have in the spring. We have good PPE, we have enough masks and gloves to take care of patients. We were very short in the spring. We actually have treatment options today between Dexamethasone, a steroid, Remdesivir, an anti-viral drug, and Plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients. What that means is if patients come to us early before they are very very ill those treatment options lessen the severity of the illness and I can actually get people home.

Dan Beedie: In recent news, Pfizer has announced a new potential vaccine awaiting FDA approval. What are your thoughts?

Dr. Sandeep Vijan: This is very reassuring news! I've said this since the beginning, the only thing that will end a pandemic is herd immunity. The more the vaccine comes out, the larger the doses, the more people that get vaccinated, it'll put an end to this pandemic.

Dan Beedie: Some may be concerned with getting a vaccine. What is your message to those people?

Dr. Sandeep Vijan: This vaccine has definitely been fast-tracked, but I want to reassure the public. Vaccines amongst all other medications get the greatest amount of scrutiny from the FDA and from our regulators. What they've cut out is some bureaucracy, and some red tape. This is a pandemic, they wanted to get pharmaceutical companies focused on a vaccine manufactured and getting the trial done. I, for one, believe the vaccine will be safe, and I'll be first in line to get it once it's available.

Dan Beedie: As we head into the winter months, any message for the people of Pueblo?

Dr. Sandeep Vijan: Not only do you need to wear your masks, but you need to keep a safe distance, even loved ones and family members in the same household. Now is not the right time to congregate. I personally will be doing Thanksgiving and Christmas via zoom. We are going to have to learn to be away from each other to limit the spread of the virus. My second piece of advice is you've got to get your flu shot. Doctors are dealing with COVID-19. I do not want to see an influx of influenza in the hospital as well. Getting one infection after the other can be lethal.