New Jersey is emerging as another hot spot of COVID-19 with nearly 40,000 confirmed cases and 917 deaths. However, the head of one of the state's health care systems said officials there hope they are beginning to see a peak.
Brian Gragnolati, president and CEO of Atlantic Health System, said that though "we continue to see our caseload grow each and every day," the hospital system, with six acute care hospitals, has seen a recent slowdown from double-digit increases every two to three days.
"So it continues to tax the system," he said, "but we are beginning to see day-over-day single-digit increases and we think that is letting us have an opportunity to begin to see what people are calling this apex."
Once a region hits the peak growth of infections and hospitalizations the hope is that the numbers begin to drop. Gragnolati is hoping current numbers indicate his hospital system is seeing a leveling off.
Gragnolati said the system is "still in a surge here," but also said, "The real question is will this be a plateau? And if it is a plateau, how long will that be?" he said.
In the meantime, he said the hospital system in the Garden State, like others around the nation, is focused on making the best use of its dwindling supply of protective equipment, ventilators, and medicines.
While Atlantic Health System has asked the federal government to step in, Gragnolati noted the state's emergency declaration removed "red tape and barriers" now allowing them to care for more sick patients.
"We have over doubled our capacity of intensive care patients, and we've been able to do that outside of the normal processes," he said. By taking the volume of elective procedures down and expanding what constitutes a true ICU setting, the hospital system has been able to repurpose other rooms in the hospital into places for intensive care patients.
"That has been a game-changer," he said. "Without that flexibility, that would have been difficult."
