Bartlett Regional Hospital in Juneau is seeing more COVID-19 cases among its staff as infections in the capital city rise and the community’s risk level returns to high.
“Our infection rate has increased at the hospital just like it has in the community. And we’ve seen that across the board,” said Charlee Gribbon, Bartlett’s infection preventionist. “The community level infection equals what’s happening in the hospital because we are community members.”
The hospital has a 90% vaccination rate, she said. There are 75 unvaccinated employees spread across departments, from doctors and nurses to mental health clinicians and administrative staff.
RELATED: Providence Alaska says its staff must get COVID-19 vaccine or follow additional rules
Gribbon said eight health care workers at Bartlett tested positive for COVID-19 in July alone. So far this year, there have been 16 cases. By contrast, in all of 2020, only 12 employees at the hospital tested positive.
Gribbon said the uptick is because the delta variant is so much more infectious and because both vaccinated and unvaccinated people can get it. Also, she said, people are mixing socially much more now than in 2020. People arrive on planes, cruise ships come into town and restaurants and summer camps are open.
“I’m monitoring symptoms and testing people on very low symptoms. Our testing threshold is very low — so what that translates to … is testing our employees a lot more often,” she said. “So that’s what I’m doing, is testing a lot.”
RELATED: Leaders of Alaska’s largest hospitals issue stark warning as COVID-19 surge continues
Gribbon estimates she tests around 10 employees a day.
The hospital is screening patients and visitors with the same questions it’s been using since the beginning of the pandemic. Masks are still required at all times.
The visitor policy has changed, though. Now patients are allowed only two visitors throughout their hospital stay — and they have to be the same two visitors.
Before, patients were allowed two visitors at a time, but as many different visitors as they liked.
As of Friday, there were four COVID-19 patients at Bartlett. Of those, two were severely ill and required high levels of additional oxygen. If they need to be intubated, they’ll be sent to Anchorage or Seattle for care.
[Sign up for Alaska Public Media’s daily newsletter to get our top stories delivered to your inbox.]
