Hospitals resume elective surgeries
Major hospital systems across Arizona are resuming elective surgeries after a decline in the number of COVID-19 patients.
Banner Health, which is Arizona’s largest health system, announced Thursday that Banner hospitals and surgery centers may now schedule and perform “all elective procedures.”
The Phoenix-based health system twice paused elective surgeries and procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic, most recently during a spike in June and July, as did other hospitals and health systems. Examples of elective surgeries include hysterectomies, mastectomies and non-urgent hip and knee replacements.
The Mayo Clinic in Arizona, Abrazo Health, the Carondelet Health Network and Honor Health confirmed to The Arizona Republic this week that they have resumed elective surgeries, too.
Officials with Valleywise Health Medical Center in Phoenix on Friday said they had resumed elective surgeries at “partial capacity.”
Dignity Health is “carefully adding back in elective surgical cases,” spokeswoman Carmelle Malkovich wrote in an email. Dignity’s St. Joseph’s and St. Joseph’s Westgate medical center started elective surgeries last week, she said Friday, while Chandler Regional and Mercy Gilbert medical centers started in early August.
As of Thursday, 365 intensive care beds statewide were occupied by COVID-19 patients, down from a peak of 970 on July 13. The number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized statewide was 1,068 on Thursday, which is a drop of nearly 70% from the July 13 peak of 3,517.
“If at any time a Banner hospital experiences capacity constraints, they will narrow elective surgery criteria at their own discretion to ensure adequate capacity is maintained,” Banner Health said in a written statement.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey told reporters at a Thursday briefing at Papago Park Military Reservation that the trajectory of Arizona’s COVID-19 metrics is moving in the right direction but that it’s too soon to take a victory lap.
“We want to remain cautious and keep doing what’s working,” he said. “I’m grateful to every Arizonan for participating and doing their part.”
Arizona’s surge of COVID-19 cases was severe and the state still has one of the highest infection rates in the country, at 2,737 cases per 100,000 people as of Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s CDC COVID tracker says. The U.S. average is 1,694 cases per 100,000 people.
As of Friday, the Arizona Department of Health Services was reporting nearly 4,700 known COVID-19 deaths since the onset of the pandemic. Arizona’s death rate as of Friday was 65 deaths per 100,000 people — the 11th highest in the country in a ranking that separates New York City and New York state.
New York City had the highest COVID-19 death rate as of Friday — 281 deaths per 100,000 people, the CDC says.