Flu: Alassia and Iturraspe hospitals receive more than 300 consultations daily and work on a “warm bed”
He flu outbreak typical of the winter months came early in Santa Fedue to the low temperatures, and that translated into more intense work by the city’s public providers such as the Orlando Alassia Children’s Hospital, and the Iturraspe Hospital. In both effectors, daily consultations, on average, are more than 300.
In this context, the hospitalization areas of the aforementioned institutions they work “in hot beds”: both in Alassia and Iturraspe are at the limit of their capacity, but working in a coordinated manner and ensuring that “without collapsing.”
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Alassia Hospital
“Consultations have been increasing for the last 15 or 20 days, maybe a little more, but for a couple of weeks now we have had consultations that exceed 300 patients. Specifically this Sunday there were more than 350. The vast majority of the reason for consultation are respiratory symptoms,” the director of the Alassia Hospital, Pablo Ledesma, explained to UNO Santa Fe.
“We have already begun to isolate, the first case was about ten days ago. In our case, because it is pediatrics, the respiratory syncytial virus predominates, but the influenza virus is also being isolated in other hospitals. These are the two viruses that predominate, one in children, the other in adults, and also reflects the large number of cases at the outpatient level that there are,” he noted.
The professional admitted that the polar wave arrived earlier than expected and that they estimate that the peak of infections is expected for mid-June.
Ledesma indicated that “We have been working for a few days above 90% of the bed occupancy level” and that “there is a high turnover of beds and high demand.”
“This is very dynamic, we are at a high occupancy level but without collapsing. We are responding, working in a network, not only with the hospitals of Santa Fe, but with hospitals throughout the province to optimize resources,” he said.
Iturraspe Hospital
On the other hand, the director of the Iturraspe Hospital, Francisco Sánchez Guerra, explained to UNO Santa Fe that “Queries have already tripled” and that “the respiratory pathology at this time of consultation is preponderant.” This occurs in both pediatric and adult patients, however in the second case it is managed by an outpatient clinic, while many children require hospitalization to assist them accordingly.
“It is a bottleneck like every year. Last Friday, which is when the cold started, day by day the consultation increased by 30%. The consultation on Sunday was already balanced and was equated to the pediatric consultation with that of adults, with both being almost 200 patients, which for pediatrics is a lot. In adults it is a high number, but manageable”explained the professional.
Sánchez Guerra stated that “the hospital has been working with a warm bed since last week,” even using beds for children that are not for pediatric patients “always looking for two things: to be able to provide a professional response, and with nursing reinforcement.” At the Iturraspe hospital, bed occupancy is 100%.
“When we talk about high demand, in the city of Santa Fe, there are three public providers that handle pediatric patients: the Alassia Hospital, the Iturraspe and the Protomedical, the three providers with different complexities. The Alassia is the one with the greatest complexity. When we talk about 100% occupancy, it is because we have referred the most complex patients who require pediatric therapy to Alassia and sometimes complex patients who can be managed with intermediate therapy are managed at Iturraspe. Patients who do not have so much complexity that they also require. hospitalization are handled in the protomedic. Between the three of us we coordinate the referrals,” said the director.
