Kansas hospitals are turning away more than 100 transfer patients a month as smaller, local hospitals continue filling up at an alarming rate. In May, at the beginning of the pandemic, the University of Kansas Health System denied 40 transfers and in October it was up to 140, said Jill Chadwick, a KU spokeswoman. “November was expected to trend higher,” she said, adding that those numbers are not yet available. At the KU daily briefing Wednesday, Hays Medical Center reported currently treating 34 COVID-19 patients, which is more than third of the 85 to 90 in-patients the hospital usually averages. Dr. Heather Harris, Hays Medical Center’s medical director, said that nearly all of their COVID-19 in-patients are from rural counties without mask mandates.
Source: The Iola Register
