General update and positivity rate: The State of Indiana’s hospitalization rate is currently the highest it has been throughout the pandemic. Experts are predicting this current surge will last through January 2022 before receding. Indiana’s Covid positivity rate is at 14.1% and Shelby County’s positivity rate is 13.6%. Shelby County’s positivity rate represents an increase compared to the prior reporting period. Shelby County’s rise in Covid positivity rate places us in the “orange” category and only slightly below the threshold for the “red” category. MHP Pediatrics immunized 87 pediatric patients last Saturday with the Pfizer pediatric dose during its Covid vaccination clinic.

MHP Priority Care and primary care walk-ins: Walk-in volumes at our locations continue to remain well above normal volumes. Priority Care is averaging 70-90 urgent care patients per day. MHP Family & Internal Medicine is seeing 30-40 walk-in patients per day. MHP Pediatrics is seeing 55-80+ walk-in patients per day, which is well above our average. Longer wait times may occur due to higher volumes. We are also experiencing significant supply chain shortages for Covid testing across the enterprise.

Emergency Department: The Emergency Department is seeing between 80-90+ patients per day over the last several days, which remains well above our normal volumes. There has also been an increase in Covid infusion referrals. We have zero remaining doses of Regeneron and we hope to receive 80 additional doses soon. The infusion waitlist for patients has grown significantly. We do not have an anticipated ship date for additional Regeneron doses at this time.

The infusion drugs are the 2^nd best defense against severe Covid and hospitalization. The best defense remains being fully vaccinated/boosted. If you are not yet vaccinated, please consider it. If you are eligible for a vaccine booster, please schedule it. Due to supply shortages, we can no longer rely on having the infusion drugs readily available to keep Covid positive patients out of the hospital.

Get your Covid vaccine at MedWorks Pharmacy: MedWorks Pharmacy is offering the Pfizer vaccine and Pfizer booster, Johnson & Johnson vaccine and booster, as well as the Pediatric Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. We request patients call to schedule an appointment for the Pediatric dosing, which is available on Wednesdays and Fridays. Call 317-421-2020 to schedule an appointment. All the other vaccines can be scheduled on the MHP website or by calling MedWorks directly. https://www.mymhp.org/news-media/categories/covid-19-updates/ We accept walk-ins for the adult vaccines as well.

Inpatient unit: All forty of our beds are occupied on our 3^rd floor inpatient unit. Several surrounding hospitals are reporting inpatient bed and emergency department diversion due to increased volumes and staff shortages.

• We currently have fourteen critical care patients on the 3^rd floor and nine of those patients are due to Covid. Of the nine Covid-related critical care patients only one is vaccinated.
• We have eight patients on ventilators, plus five additional patients who are on Vapotherm or BiPap.
• Twenty-nine (73%) of our inpatients are Covid positive and twenty-three (79%) of them are unvaccinated.